North Korea: Tough talk at UN as defiant Pyongyang says there will be more launches

Skeptics are unsure if a further set of sanctions will help curb North's nuclear missile ambitions.

The UN Security Council said after an urgent meeting it will adopt new sanctions on North Korea after Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket on Sunday.

North Korea claimed it placed an earth observation satellite into orbit, but there are concerns it was another milestone in Pyongyang's programme to build a long-range missile that can carry arsenal including nuclear weapons.

South Korea and the US also said they are thinking of deploying an advanced missile defense system in South Korea "at the earliest possible date," Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, a state TV new bulletin said Pyongyang will go ahead with more such launches in future, BBC reported.

Samantha Power, US Ambassador to the UN, said the Security Council will impose "serious consequences" on Pyongyang.

"There can be no business as usual ... we'll come up with something tough," she said.

"The members of the Security Council strongly condemn this launch," Venezuela's UN envoy Rafael Ramirez said after the emergency UN Security Council meeting, BBC reported.

However, skeptics are unsure if a further set of sanctions will help curb North's nuclear missile ambitions.

The UN has imposed sanctions four times on North Korea after its first missile test ten years ago, but those haven't stopped the reclusive country on its tracks -- only slowed down.

It also remains to be seen, how far China, Pyongyang's only serious diplomatic ally, will go in imposing tough sanctions on it.

Earlier, North Korea said in a statement the earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong-4 had successfully been put into orbit less than 10 minutes after the lift-off. The statement said the satellite was making a polar orbit of Earth every 94 minutes.

As usual, North Korean newspapers were awash in poetic exuberance describing the landmark rocket launch.

They called it a "fascinating vapour... trailing in the clear and blue sky in spring of February on the threshold of the Day of the Shining Star".

Early in January Pyongyang, which has been running a decades-old nuclear programme, claimed it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.

North Korea has been attempting to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and its last rocket launch was in 2012, when it said it put into orbit a communications satellite.

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