Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton listens during the North Atlantic Council (NAC) meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expressing deep concern about North Korean plans to carry out a long-range rocket launch this month.
Clinton told foreign ministers from NATO and Russia to publicly demand that North Korea stand down.
The tests are banned by the U.N. Security Council. And Washington sees the launches as veiled tests of missiles designed to strike the United States.
North Korea has told nations it will launch the rocket sometime this month and that debris would fall into the Yellow Sea and in waters east of the Philippines.
The defiant declaration has already forced South Korean officials to reroute flights.
The North says the rocket will be mounted with a polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite.
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