NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday blasted North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket as a blatant breach of five UN resolutions and demanded Pyongyang comply with international law.

"This launch is in direct violation of five United Nations Security Council Resolutions, which repeatedly call for North Korea to suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile programme, to re-establish its pre-existing commitments to a moratorium on missile launching and not to conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology," Stoltenberg said in a statement.