NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has issued a strong condemnation of North Korea's rocket launch, calling it a "direct violation" of five UN Security Council resolutions, ABC News reported.

Stoltenberg said in a statement that the five resolutions "call for North Korea to suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile" program, to "re-establish its pre-existing commitments to a moratorium on missile launching and not to conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology."

He said that "NATO continues to call on the North Korean authorities to comply with their obligations under international law, not to threaten with or conduct any launches using ballistic missile technology and to refrain from any further provocative actions."

Source: MENA