Lee seeks response to N. Korea's launch

SEOUL, April 6 (UPI) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak sought bipartisan support Monday for a unified response to North Korea's rocket launch.

Lee met with leaders of the ruling Grand National Party, main opposition Democratic Party and minority opposition Party for Advanced Korea to seek support across party lines for a response, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

"Everyone at the (Group of 20 summit in London) was concerned. Even China and Russia said everyone must discourage North Korea from firing the rocket," Lee said during the meeting.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket Sunday and said it successfully put a communications satellite into orbit. Other countries said they believe the launch failed based on U.S. intelligence reports that the payload, and the rocket's second and third stages fell into the Pacific Ocean, Yonhap said.

South Korea, Japan and the United States are seeking to impose new U.N. sanctions on North Korea, maintaining that any rocket launch would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution banning Pyongyang from missile-related activities.

South Korea hasn't announced any retaliatory measures against the North, but observers told Yonhap one possibility would be further reductions in economic or humanitarian assistance.