UN Security Council to hold session on North Korean spy satellite launch, Seoul Official says

South Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Hwang Joon-kook speaks during a U.N. Security Council meeting on cybersecurity at the U.N. headquarters in New York in this photo captured from U.N. Web TV, April 4. Yonhap

The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) is expected to convene a session later this week to discuss North Korea's launch of a military spy satellite, a Seoul official said Wednesday.

South Korea, currently serving as an elected member to the UNSC, has requested a meeting, alongside the United States and Japan, following Pyongyang's unsuccessful launch of the spy satellite late Monday, the official said.

"As for now, we expect the meeting will take place on the 31st (New York time)," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The North said it launched a new rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite from a launching site on its northwest coast Monday. The launch failed due to the air blast of the rocket during the first-stage flight.

North Korea is banned under multiple UNSC sanctions from carrying out any such launches using ballistic missile technology. Launching a spy satellite requires the same kind of technology as the one used for missile launches.

But the prospects for a united response from the UNSC appear dim as China and Russia — two of the five permanent UNSC member states with veto power — have been uncooperative in taking action against the North's provocations. (Yonhap)