South Korea's defence minister said on Saturday that some countries were "ignoring North Korea's unlawful behaviour", which he said threatens to weaken U.N. sanctions against its missile and nuclear programmes.

China and Russia on Friday ignored a U.S. call for the U.N. Security Council to unite in condemning North Korea for its attempted satellite launch this week and instead blamed Washington for raising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea on Friday announced new sanctions against a North Korean hacking group, Kimsuky, it accused of being involved in the North's latest satellite launch attempt.

The United States has called for a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday to discuss North Korea's attempted satellite launch this week, the spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said.

North Korea's latest space launcher appears to be a new design and most likely uses engines developed for the nuclear-armed country's intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), analysts said on Thursday.

North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, leader Kim Jong Un's sister, said her country would soon put a military spy satellite into orbit and promised Pyongyang would increase its military surveillance capabilities, state media KCNA reported on Thursday.

North Korean missile tests are endangering the safety of commercial shipping in busy sea lanes in northeastern Asia without enough time given for notification, several countries told a UN agency on Wednesday.

A North Korean satellite launch on Wednesday ended in failure, sending the booster and payload plunging into the sea, North Korean state media said, and the South's military said it had recovered parts of the launch vehicle.

SEOUL (Reuters) -Air raid sirens and a mobile phone alert calling for evacuations rattled residents of South Korea's capital, Seoul, early on Wednesday after North Korea tried to launch what it said was a satellite.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is believed to weigh over 140 kg (308 lb) according to an artificial intelligence (AI) estimate, a South Korean lawmaker said on Wednesday in a remark reflecting abiding interest in the health of the North's secretive ruler.