NATO called on North Korea Wednesday to call off a planned rocket launch which it said would violate UN resolutions and risk destabilising the region.
"We call on the North Korean authorities to meet their obligations under international law and comply fully with the will of the international community as expressed by the United Nations Security Council and the moratorium on missile launches," the military alliance said in a statement.
It said a launch would also "risk exacerbating tensions in the region and further destabilising the Korean Peninsula."
Pyongyang announced on Saturday that it intends to launch a long-range rocket between December 10 and 22.
The United States and its key Asian allies South Korea and Japan have condemned the move as a disguised ballistic missile test that violates UN resolutions passed after Pyongyang's two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.