Defiant North Korea launches rocket
Seoul - North Korea defied weeks of international warnings against a planned satellite launch as it fired a long-range rocket on Friday, a South Korean official told the Yonhap news agency.
The Unha-3 rocket blasted off at 7:39 am time (2239 GMT Thursday) from the Tongchang-ri launch site, South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seook said.
"South Korean and US intelligence authorities believe that North Korea's missile launch ended in failure," he said.
Japan's Defence Ministry said in a statement the rocket appeared to have broken into pieces a minute after the launch.
The rocket rose to an altitude of 120 kilometres before it blew up, according to the Japanese statement. No damage had been reported in Japan.
North Korea had said it intended to launch an Earth observation satellite into orbit during a five-day window that started Thursday, to commemorate the centenary on Sunday of the birth of founder Kim Il Sung.
The international community had expressed fears that a launch could be a cover for a ballistic missile test, violating UN resolutions prohibiting Pyongyang from engaging in ballistic missile and nuclear activity.//DPA
