Assembly passes resolution against N. Korean rocket launch

SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's National Assembly on Monday adopted a resolution denouncing North Korea's rocket launch as a serious provocation and urged closer international cooperation to sanction the communist country.

North Korea claimed it successfully sent a communications satellite into orbit
after launching a three-stage rocket on Sunday morning in violation of United
Nations Security Council resolutions. South Korea and the U.S. said hours later
that the rocket launch ended in failure, as stage two and three of the rocket and
its payload fell into the Pacific Ocean.
The South Korean Assembly's resolution, which passed its plenary session by a
vote of 167 to 2, criticized the rocket launch as a "serious provocation" that
violates U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 and urged the government to join
in international efforts aimed at sanctioning North Korea.
The resolution came as the United Nations Security Council in New York on Sunday
(local time) failed to agree on how to deal with North Korea's rocket launch.
"The South Korean National Assembly, under any circumstance, cannot tolerate
North Korea's rocket launch and holds the North responsible for all consequences
that may result," the resolution said.
President Lee Myung-bak said in a meeting with Assembly leaders on Monday that
his government will push to take retaliatory measures against North Korea,
including its early participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security
Initiative that seeks to stem trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.
Seoul has yet to announce its own retaliatory steps against the North, but
observers here believe the country could further reduce its economic or
humanitarian assistance to the impoverished nation.