this is al jazeera. welcome to the news hour. north korea launches a long rage missile. japan says it's intolerable. a seven year old survivor pulled out of a collapsed building after an earthquake. goz forces in on aleppo with opposition groups fearing a siege on the biggest city. investigators in somalia conclude a hole in the passenger

plane this week was caused by a bomb. north korea has ignored international warnings and launched a long range rocket from its west coast. neighboring countries and the united nations are saying that the launch is a cover for a test of new missile technology. there has been a joint call for a u.n. security council meeting to discuss the north korea rocket launch. the missile's trajectory appears to have gone beyond south korea's military radar range. that's according to the news agency there. the news agency adds that the launch may have filled. abe is calling the launch absolutely intolerable. he says it is a violation of the agreements. >> translation: we will not tolerate income going ahead with the launch after repeated warnings to restrain themselves.

the missile launch following the nuclear testing is a clear violation of the u.n. security council resolutions. we will cooperate with international community and stand firm to take appropriate measures. we will also give our best efforts to protect our people's security and safety japanese prime minister abe there strongly condemning this news of the long-range rocket launch. harry faucet is live for us in seoul. what is the reaction there? >> reporter: the reaction here from the south koreans was to convene the president - the president of south korea convening a meeting calling for an immediate meeting emergency of the council in new york. also as you were saying, reports on the local news agency suggesting that potentially something might have gone wrong with this launch, talking about

objects falling into the sea near the south korean island of jeju. they are in that reporting themselves so far. they had yet to ascertain the launch. japan and the u.s. are both suggesting that they tracked the launch for a much longer distance than the south korean reporting about that tracking ending near the island. one of the things that had been giving some weight to speculation that it hadn't gone well was the fact that north korea had yet to make any announce: when you were reading the headlines a few minutes ago, we saw the north korean present a flash up on kctv. a brief statements coming from the state media saying there would be a special announcement at noon local time pyongyang. that's about an hour and a half from now. the signals coming from them

seen to suggest that they have had a successful launch this launch coming about two hours after an eight-day launch window that they announced on sunday. so this was not a complete supplies, was it? >> reporter: not at all. even before they announced their initial launch window there had been a great deal of satellite imagery showing preparations being made on the west coast of north korea. then yesterday the announcement they were bringing forward the launch wind by one day. a good deal of speculation suggesting that it would, in fact, be launched on this day because of the weather. a very clear blue sky conditions across the korean peninsula, sunday. that weather was due to close in on monday and tuesday with cloud and rain. certainly historically north korea has erred on the beginning of these launch windows in terms of the timing of its launches.

it probably didn't want to wait until too late in that window, and so it has gone today a clear sky day. also this launch window in the run up to the very significant date in north korea. the anniversary of the birth of the child of the former leader thank you. let's get the reaction from china. adrian brown is joining us from beijing. as we were saying earlier, china is north korea's closest ally in the region. what are they likely to be saying about this? >> reporter: well, there has been no fish reaction from the-- official reaction from the chinese government, but that's mainly because of the start of the lunar new year holiday here, the most important day here. there was a statement from the

news agency which has condemned the rocket launch. they say they want to do everything to prevent the kror consider ian an peninsula to be nuclearized. their big concern is that if the north korean regime were to collapse, then hundreds of thousands of refugees would then spill across the border into china. that's what the u.s. has warned china in the past. they're saying the result of an action by you could lead eventually to the regime collapsing. is that what you want? china's position so far is this. it doesn't believe that sanctions are an end to themselves. therefore, it could well be very reluctant to sign up to a hardening of sanctions where the china has the power the veto. china has found itself in a very difficult position because what north korea has just done is not

just to defy the united states, not just to defy japan or south korea. it is also defied its oldest friend china which has pleaded with north korea to cease these testing of missiles. north korea for now is simply not listening. the question is this, is north korea contesting not just the resolve of the u.n. but also the resolve of china indeed. thank you for that. south korea's defense ministry says north korea has launched what it calls an observation satellite, but criticss are concerned that the operation is actually a cover for a banned his aisle test. north korea's nuclear program has been of concern for the international community for more than 20 years. to give you background that now, north korea first test fired a medium range ballistic missile in 1993 with an estimated range

of a thousand clms from nodong. that nearly in 19898 another one. in 2006, another one which broke up shortly after flight. then in 2006 the first nuclear test. then in 2009 the second nuclear test. over a rocket launch in 2013 was followed by a third nuclear test. the latest nuclear test was a month ago. a professor of political science and diplomacy joins us via skype from seoul. as we've been saying, the global condemnation on this has begun almost immediately. we heard from the jap that's

prime minister-- japanese prime minister abe with his strong condemnation. how do we understand why north korea's leadership continues to pursue this? >> sure. i think the primary reason why the north koreans are pursuing this is for regime security. they're genuinely concerned that the u.s. might attack it, the u.s. has attacked places like libya and others in the past. they have said this to us. they don't have anything else to generate hard currency. north korea also trade in things like meth and feth amphetamine. they do a lot of illicit programs. it has failed as a common xhoonist state. nuclear weapons have become central to the regime's

identity. it faces a lot of prestige through so many of these tests, there are reports that this latest test may have failed. they are claimed a month ago that their nuclear test in january was a hydrogen bomb, but that was widely disputed. the level of their technology at this point would suggest is not particularly advanced, is it? >> some of this is standard technical development problems. nuclear weapons are complicated, missile technology is complicated. it takes time to build these. if you think about the programs from the 40s to 60s there were all sorts of things, problems and failures. it's not surprising there would be difficulties. that is compounded by the fact that they don't have an open

scientific culture. i would argue it is surprising that they have come this far. it is pa mazing that they have developed nuclear weapons and missiles to place them on thank you for that. from the united states. rob reynolds is live for us in washington dc. it is just saturday evening there right now. what are people there saying? >> reporter: i would like to read you first of all some excerpts from a statement by the national security adviser at the white house in the obama administration who has been saying, according to a statement released by the white house, susan r ice, saying that north korea's launch of missile technology is yet another

destabilizing and provocative action and is a flagrant violation of multiple u.n. security council resolutions. she goes on to say they condemn today's launch and the determination to prioritise programs over the well-being of its people. coincidentally. this took place at exactly the same moment that the republican party debate was underway in new hampshire where a very important primary in that republican debate, nominating contest, is about to take place and asked about one of the leading contenders, senator ted cruz of texas, said the fact that north korea has been able to launch this missile, this rocket again is a sign of the failure of the

obama administration and by implication, failure by former secretary of state hillary clinton who, of course, is running for the democratic nomination. the u.s. together with japan and south korea have called for a meeting of the u.n. security council to discuss this issue on sunday. as adrian brown pointed out just a few minutes ago, china which is a close ally of north korea has a veto power in the united nations, so it may be a very interesting meeting of the u.n. security council in new york on sunday that pegs the question of what appearingss does the u.n. really have here in reacting. you mentioned that u.n. security council meeting, but what unilateral options does the u.s. really have here? >> i don't think that there are any military options that are on

the table. there really has not been any discussion of that. i think that the pattern that the obama administration has followed over the past seven and some years has been to galvanize international reaction to get a coalition of people together. now it's interesting that just a week from tomorrow monday, later in february, the president of the u.s., obama, will be hosting an asian summit, the meetings of the heads of asian leaders and china's pretty president xi jinping is pektd to be there. so there is an opportunity there for a one-on-one discussions and negotiations between the leader of the u.s. and the leaders of china as well as japan and south korea to discuss this issue at

that meeting which will take place on 15 and 16 february. in terms of the previous reaction that we've had from the u.s. on this, they have slapped numerous sanctions and also in the past, they have tried the carrot approach rather than the stick approach. none of those have worked right now. it gets to the question of what they can do here. you mentioned those diplomatic moves earlier. are there further economic sanctions that they can apply towards north korea? >> north korea is so poor and as your guest pointed out a few moments ago, it has to generate hard currency by all sorts of illicit activities, selling drugs and other sorts of things on the international market as he alleged, that it's really

very difficult to apply economic sanctions that will have any real effect on this country. it's an isolated country, its population is impoverished, its leadership lives more lavish ly but there are limits on which sanctions can effect the upper echelons. it has been a quandarry on how to deal with north korea. every time that north korea seems to sign on to an accord or to agree to limit its nuclear or missiles program, it then demonstrates some disregard for those commitments in order, perhaps, to gain attention in the international community or to solidify the rule of its

leaders, the ki m family. it's difficult to say, exactly, what the reasons for all of this is, and i will leave that to the pyongyang specialists that you may have on the program, but for the united states it has been a quandary now ever since the 1990s when the clinton administration was trying to deal with pyongyang and this pattern repeats itself over and over again, month-by-month, year-by-year, and really decade by decade thanks very much. as we've been telling you, then, north korea firing a long-range rocket widely seen as a covert missile test and defying international warnings. the u.n. and other countries are calling it a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile

that could strike the u.s. mainland. we will keep you up-to-date on that. to other news. officials in taiwan say more than 130 people are buried in a collapseed building in a southern city in tainan after a massive earthquake. a seven year old boy was pulled out. 18 people are killed and 100 or more are missing. what's the latest there? >> reporter: this rescue operation has been continuing throughout the night. we're into daylight hours now. it continues. during the night, as you say, they have been pulling for survivors from this collapsed building. the death toll stands at 18. they do have a clearer idea of how much people are missing, unaccounted for in this collapseed building. it is around about 130 or so.

it is assumed that most of those people will be on the side of the building that got crushed, because this building completely toppled over. any of the other survivors, people injured, have been got out of the accessible parts. they're digging down into the harder to reach parts, the ground level here. they are still finding people alive. it is assumed that most of those will have died, but they know the people are alive because there are still rescues going on. just over to my left here they have been working for about 12 hours to reach a man in his 20s. they have been communicating with him. he is in a very confined space. he seems to be injured. they are close to releasing him. they expect within a few minutes, in fact, as we are talking here, we might try and move the camera around and get a picture of this. it does sounds as though they are bringing him out. this is assumed to have been - this is a man in his 20s who he

have been trying to reach for about 12 hours now cutting through masonry and also cutting through steel to reach him. they could only use hand-held tools. they have got to be very careful about causing any shifts in the masonry that it could have lost him, but as you can see, they've reached the man. this is a man in his 20s who has just been pulled out. it's taken 12 hours now to reach him. there is a real sense of elation when things like this happen. they are obviously finding tragically bodies, but occasionally people are brought out, like this alive, and that gives them hope that they're going to find more people alive. it is more difficult now. they're dealing with the deep down in this rubble. they're working in far more confined spaces, but it has to be assumed that there are still some others in there who have

found spaces to be in, who maybe still have water or have sources of water and are still alive there the search for survivors continuing there in tainan in southern taiwan after that devastating earthquake. tens of thousands of syrians are stuck on the border with turkey. up to 35,000 refugees have reached the border, but they have been blocked from entering turkey, even after the e.u. called on turkey to grant them refuge. aid agencies are providing tents and handing out food and blankets. despite that many people are sleeping out in the open. many have fled their homes because the syrian government forces backed by russian air strikes are advancing on the city of aleppo. on friday they captured the village of ratyan. they fighting to take control. the towns of two other towns

bayanoun and hayyan, cutting off aleppo's supplies. >> reporter: they're pushing deeper into rebel held territory in northern syria, backed by russian air power. the government forces and their allies are inching towards aleppo city. they have cut off the main supply route from turkey to the city. now they're trying to encircle it. >> translation: the regime is trying to lay siege to the city. it has already depopulated the countryside. some people are starting to leave the city. they are afraid. i don't plan to leave because if we leave, who will make sure the voices of those trapped inside are heard. >> reporter: already people are packing what they can and heading out. there is no official statistics on how many people live on the eempb side of the city under the control of the opposition. some figures suggests there are

up to 30,000. so far there hasn't been a mass exodus, but there are those who don't want to take the risk of being encircled. >> translation: people are leaving and scared. they're heading to the border through the province of idlib. >> reporter: prices are already on the rise because there is a shortage of fuel >> translation: the prices are on the rise and this is normal because of the situation. there is a lack of fuel. i asked the people, please don't leave or else our city will be empty. >> reporter: many in the opposition rankss feel the government is employing a tactic that it has used in the past, laying siege to starved people and fighters into submission. in 2014 the rebels were forced to surrender homs after a three year government siege. at the time the opposition didn't lose hope because they still controlled aleppo.

easy access to turkey gave them a life line. aleppo's future now hangs in the balance. the harmed groups regarded as the moderate rebels are fighting for their survival. already their voice in any future settlement has been weakened syria's foreign minister says the government won't accept any opposition preconditionss for talks due later this month. both sides graham each other for-- blame each other for the breakdown of talks this month. >> translation: syria is going to a syrian syrian dialogue. we will never complement conditions imposed by anyone. the syrian government is more interested in the situation more than anyone. no-one can blame the opposition. i hope the u.n. takes this into consideration to ensure we are in a healthy atmosphere that everybody is committed to the

talks colombia's president says his country has diagnosed more than 3,000 pregnant women with the zika virus. more from rio in brazil. >> reporter: colombian president says that there are no signs so far that more 3,000 colombian women who are pregnant are going to give birth to children with microcephaly. the key word here is so far. this is often not detected until the 7th month, sometimes not only the mother gives birth. the epidemic is newer here than in brazil. so clearly it is too early to tell. on the other hand colombia is saying that three people who died from the syndrome which is an auto immune and neurological disease was caused by zika. we've seen a spike in the

syndrome which affects adults, not just pregnant women or children in countries like venezuelan and brazil. so there is still a lot to be investigated, a lot of things we don't know. one thing we do know, though, is that brazilian researchers have found the zika virus in urine and also in saliva. there is a lot of concern during carnival here in brazil that people could pass on the virus through saliva by kissing. there are thousands and thousands of people out on the streets drinking beer and kissing strangers. that is customary during carnival but this year it isn't safe thousands turn out for an anti refugee protest in germany. also to new hampshire where donald trump needs a strong showing in the latest republican debate. that's coming up. that's coming up.

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news hour. north korea has launched a long range missile from its west coast. that is despite calls to ban the operation. the rocket launch is a cover for an illegal ballistic missile test says some countries. more than 150 people are burden in an apartment building in tainan. at least 17 people have been killed. syrian troops backed by russian air strikes are making gains on towns surrounding aleppo. tens of thousands of syrians have sought refugee at the border. somalia's transport minister says the hole in a plane was caused by a bomb. our correspondent reports. >> reporter: the somali airbus had taken from mogadishu inat