U.N. condemns North Korea rocket launch, pledges significant new sanctions

SEOUL, South Korea -- The U.N. Security Council condemned North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket world leaders called a banned test of ballistic missile technology and another "intolerable provocation."

The U.N.'s most powerful body pledged to adopt a new resolution with "significant" new sanctions.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un went ahead with the launch early Sunday, a month after the country's fourth nuclear test. He ignored an appeal from China, its neighbor and important ally, not to proceed. In another slap to Beijing, he chose the eve of the Chinese New Year, the country's most important holiday.

In a reflection of heightened hostilities between the rival Koreas, South Korea's Defense Ministry said a South Korean naval vessel fired five shots into the water as a warning today when a North Korean patrol boat moved south of the countries' disputed boundary line in the Yellow Sea.

Since its Jan. 6 nuclear test, which the North claimed was a powerful hydrogen bomb, China and the United States have been negotiating the text of a new Security Council sanctions resolution.