Japan extends North Korea sanctions after rocket

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan decided on Friday to extend economic sanctions on North Korea by a year, including a ban on imports, and to tighten oversight of fund transfers to its secretive communist neighbor in response to a rocket launch, the top government spokesman said.

Pyongyang said it had put a satellite into orbit but Tokyo, Seoul and Washington consider Sunday's launch a thinly disguised test of a long-range missile designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska. The U.S. military has said no object entered orbit.

Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone earlier said he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had agreed in a telephone meeting to work together to seek a new U.N. Security Council resolution against North Korea.

(Reporting by Chisa Fujioka)