'North Korea launch would go before UN'

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SEOUL, Mar 28 (AP): South Korea, the United States and Japan warned that North Korea's planned rocket launch would violate a UN resolution and said they would take the issue to the world body's Security Council if Pyongyang goes ahead with it, a news report said Saturday.
North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit between April 4 and 8 as part of a peaceful bid to develop its space programme.
But some governments suspect the North will use the launch to test technology for a long-range missile capable of striking Alaska. They have denounced the launch as a provocative move banned under a 2006 UN Security Council resolution prohibiting ballistic activity by Pyongyang, and have warned it would invite international sanctions.
"We will immediately discuss the matter at the UN Security Council," Japan's nuclear envoy Akitaka Saiki told reporters after talks with his US and South Korean counterparts in Washington, according to Japan's Kyodo news agency.
South Korean envoy Wi Sung-lac reaffirmed Seoul's position that the North's rocket launch would be in violation of the UN resolution "no matter what" is "on the top" of the rocket, South Korean news channel YTN reported.
North Korea has threatened unspecified "strong steps" if the Security Council criticises the launch, and has suggested it would reverse steps made to disable its nuclear programme.
Wi and Saiki held separate meetings Friday with President Barack Obama's new chief representative on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, and with Sung Kim, another US envoy who handles day-to-day dealings with the North.