S. Korea hails U.N. response to N. Korean rocket launch

SEOUL, April 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Tuesday welcomed the U.N. Security Council's statement condemning North Korea's latest rocket launch and reiterated its call for the communist nation to refrain from further raising regional tensions.

"The government welcomes and supports that the U.N. Security Council adopted a
presidential statement on North Korea's long-range rocket launch," foreign
ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said in a statement.
He called the U.N. response "appropriate," noting it characterizes the North's
April 5 action as a "contravention" of Resolution 1718, adopted in 2006 after its
missile and nuclear tests.
Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae also welcomed the statement, calling it
a "meaningful" step by the international community.
"We believe the very fact that the countries sent a clear message in a unified
voice has significant meaning," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said in a
press conference.
"We hope North Korea will no longer try to approach the issue strategically and
carefully think about the meaning of the message and become a mature member of
the international community," he added.
In the new compromise, the 15-member council calls on all U.N. member states to
comply with their obligations under Resolution 1718, aimed at tightening various
sanctions on Pyongyang.
"North Korea will have to clearly recognize that the international community
issued a stern and unified stance through the Security Council's presidential
statement and refrain from provocative acts undermining the peace and stability
on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia," Moon said.
He applauded the new U.N. statement's call for early resumption of the six-way
talks on the North's nuclear program.
"The government urges North Korea to respond to the international community's
expectations of a peaceful and diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue," Moon
said.