N Korea slams US for 'double standards' on rocket launch

North Korea has lashed out at the United States for imposing "double standards" on Pyongyang's recent rocket launch, calling the US move a product of its "hostile policy" toward the North. "The US malignantly slandered the (North's) satellite launch as 'a long-range missile launch' and spearheaded a campaign for 'protesting' against it for no reason," the North's Foreign Ministry said in an English-language statement carried late Monday by the country's official Korean Central News Agency. The ministry claimed the US backed "other country's" long-range missile launch, saying, "The US application of the double standards is, in the final analysis, a product of its hostile policy towards" the North. The latest statement came a week after the UN Security Council condemned the launch and called on member states to find ways to tighten sanctions on the communist country. North Korea launched a long-range rocket on April 13 to put what it claims was a satellite into orbit, but it exploded soon after lift-off, with the pieces falling into the sea off South Korea's west coast.