UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council condemned North Korea’s rogue rocket launch Wednesday and the United States started pressing China to agree punitive action against its ally.

North Korea took a defiant stance against international fury over its launch however and China signaled it was reluctant to take tough new measures.

The UN Security Council held emergency talks after the North, already under international sanctions for nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, ignored pleas from friends and foes and went ahead with a rocket launch that it said put a satellite into space.

“Members of the Security Council condemned this launch, which is a clear violation of Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874,” said a statement released after the meeting.

The council highlighted a warning made after a failed launch in April that it could take “action” if there was a new attempt.

“Members of the Security Council will continue consultations on an appropriate response,” said the statement.

The United States said there had to be “consequences” for the breach of UN resolutions. US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said talks would start straight away on international action.

China’s UN Ambassador Li Baodong resisted harder hitting language in the statement, diplomats at the closed meeting said.

Li opposed mentioning in the statement that the North had used “ballistic missile technology” but eventually gave in after pressure from Rice, the diplomats said.

He also argued that there was no reason to condemn China, the envoys added.

The United States immediately pressed the need for action against the North when US undersecretary of defense Jim Miller met with Lieutenant General Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of staff of the Chinese army in Washington.

Miller “urged China to work with the United States and the international community to insist that North Korea live up to its commitments,” said a US statement.

The launch shows that “North Korea is determined to pursue its ballistic missile program without regard for it international obligations,” Rice told reporters.

“Members of the council must now work in a concerted fashion to send North Korea a clear message that its violations of UN Security Council resolutions have consequences,” she added.

North Korea fired the rocket just days before its young ruler, Kim Jong-Un, marks 12 months in power.