NORTH KOREAN LAUNCH - AT 8:10 A.M. ET:  North Korea has now launched its missile, in defiance of the wishes of many nations and UN resolutions:

(CNN) -- American officials condemned the North Korean launch of a long-range rocket Sunday, with President Obama calling it a "provocative act."

The rocket, a Taepodong 2, was launched at around 11:30 a.m. local time Sunday (2:30 a.m. GMT) at a base in the northeastern part of the country. Officials in Washington, D.C., confirmed early Sunday that the rocket cleared Japan.

Preliminary data show that two objects, likely boosters from the rocket, apparently fell around Japan -- one in the Sea of Japan and one in the Pacific Ocean.

In a statement, Obama said the launch was "a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which expressly prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind."

LATE BULLETIN:  The North Korean satellite did not achieve orbit, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

COMMENT:  The UN Security Council, that bulwark of peace and freedom, will meet later today.  The problem, of course, is that China, North Korea's closest ally, has a veto on the Council.  From the Washington Post:

China, which is North Korea's primary economic benefactor and diplomatic supporter, urged the world's nations to remain calm and exercise restraint. China and Russia will probably oppose increased Security Council sanctions against the North, diplomats said.

This is Obama's first major foreign-policy test.  His initial condemnation is appropriate.  We knew he would first take the matter to the UN.  It's what he does after the UN fails, which it will, that will tell us how he intends to act, not speak, when confronted with defiance.  We're taking bets.

April 5, 2009