"Acting by the double-dealing standard unilaterally set by the US in its interests, the UN brands the legitimate exercise of the sovereignty by an independent country as 'illegal' and its measure for self-defense provocation," the North's Korean Central News Agency said in an English-language report monitored in Seoul.

Pyongyang's state-run media further said the North's test firing is the country's "exercise of the right to launch satellites for peaceful purposes, justified by international law."

"Each country and nation has the same commitments and the same right to exercise in international relations before the international community," the KCNA said. "The application of double-dealing standard amounts to hideous arbitrary practices and it is nothing beneficial to the development of international relations at present."

The North has twice claimed that it succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit on the Unha rocket, first in late 2012 and second in February last year. Pyongyang has asserted the launches were for peaceful space research purposes, despite widespread criticism by other countries that the tests were aimed at checking its missile technology. (Yonhap)