President Obama faced his first big test on security yesterday after North Korea launched a missile designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.

He said that such provocation underscored the need for action against the defiance of a rogue nuclear power and the spread of weapons across the world. The threat of North Korea acquiring nuclear missile technology, he said, “matters to all people, everywhere”.

An emergency session of the United Nations Security Council ended in deadlock, with Russia and China balking at Western efforts to extend sanctions on North Korea by banning it from importing new categories of luxury goods.

Mr Obama set out his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons hours after being woken in the night to be told of the launch. He conceded that it might not be achieved in his lifetime but said that America had a responsibility to work for a world “free from fear” of annihilation.

He told a crowd in Prague: “We cannot succeed in this endeavour alone but we can lead it, we can start it.” The US President promised to seek immediate Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, begin talks with Russia on cutting warheads and call for better controls to prevent terrorists or rogue regimes obtaining fissile material. Mr Obama also said that he would pursue plans for missile defence systems in the Czech Republic and Poland to protect the West from other potentially rogue nuclear powers such as Iran.

North Korea claimed that the rocket had put into orbit a satellite that was broadcasting martial music from hundreds of miles above the Earth. The Pentagon said that the launch was cover for a missile test that had failed, with the rocket breaking up over the Pacific. Gordon Brown called the launch completely unacceptable.

Mr Obama, who has spent five days touring Europe, arrived in Turkey last night on a visit designed to reach out to the Muslim country.

However, President Sarkozy struck a sour note by criticising his US counterpart’s call for the European Union to expand to include Turkey. “It is up to the European Union to decide,” the French leader said.

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