North Korea rocket launch reportedly fails

North Korea fired a long-range rocket early Friday, South Korean and U.S. officials said, defying international warnings against moving forward with a launch widely seen as a provocation.

 A North Korean soldier stands guard Friday in front of the Unha-3 rocket in Tongchang-ri.

Space officials had announced they would launch a satellite this week as part of celebrations honoring North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, and liftoff took place at 7:39 a.m. from the west coast launch pad in the hamlet of Tongchang-ri, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said, citing South Korean and U.S. intelligence.

However, the launch appeared to have failed, with the rocket splintering into pieces moments after takeoff, South Korea's Defense Ministry said in Seoul.

"We suspect the North Korean missile has fallen as it divided into pieces minutes after liftoff," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters.

 A North Korean long-range missile launch has failed, U.S. officials confirm

In Washington, a U.S. official also said the launch appeared to have failed. The official offered no further details and would not discuss the source of the information.

North Korea launched a three-stage rocket from a missile base near the west coast city of Sinuiju today, claiming that it was carrying a weather satellite of purely civilian use. 

The rocket, named Unha-3 and emblazoned with a North Korean flag, was based on the same technology as the long-range Taepodong missile that the country is developing, which has triggered accusations that North Korea is actually conducting a weapons test.

Today's launch will be closely analyzed to determine how far North Korea has advanced its technological prowess. 

This undated Department of Defense photo shows a sign in the Demarcation Line (MDL) separating North and South Korea. On Monday, May 25, 2009 North Korea allegedly detonated a nuclear device during an underground test and test fired several short range missiles. North Korea announced that it has restarted its nuclear weapons research program

"We don't really care about the opinions from the outside. This is critical in order to develop our national economy," Peak Chang Ho, head of the satellite control center at the Korean Committee for Space Technology, had told reporters who were invited to North Korea for the occasion.

Peak said that a weather satellite had been installed on the rocket as part of North Korea's "peaceful space program," but officials of the U.S. and other countries fear that North Korea's missile program masks an effort to develop a delivery system for a nuclear weapon.

The rocket launch was the centerpiece of celebrations taking place this week to mark the centennial of state founder Kim IL Sung's birth, April 15, 1912 - the same day, North Koreans sometimes note with irony, as the sinking of the Titanic.

The launch also served as a distraction from the despair in one of the world's hungriest nations. One-third of North Korean children are reported to be permanently stunted because of chronic malnutrition. North Korea recently had to lower the minimum height requirement for soldiers to 4 feet, 9 inches.

The Defense Ministry in rival South Korea released figures this week saying that North Korea could afford to feed its population for a year with the money it is spending on the missile launch.

North Korea struck a deal Feb. 29 to suspend its weapons program in return for 240,000 metric tons of food aid from the United States, but the U.S. had said the aid would not be delivered if North Korea went ahead with the launch.

The rapid collapse of the deal raises the possibility of a rift in the leadership between those who would like to end North Korea's pariah status and hard-liners in the military.

North Korea launched a three-stage rocket from a missile base near the west coast city of Sinuous today, claiming that it was carrying a weather satellite of purely civilian use.

Its projected trajectory was almost due south on a course 150 miles east of Shanghai.  The second stage of the rock was to splash down east of the Philippines, which prompted Manila to cancel northbound flights as a precaution.

Since 1998, Pyongyang has conducted three previous long-range launches but has not succeeded in sending a satellite into orbit, although it has claimed otherwise.

"If they actually are successful, they can in theory deliver a weapon with a range sufficient to reach the United States," said Scott Snyder, an analyst from the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.

The launch occurred despite warnings from the United States, as well as China and Russia.

China 'troubled' by North Korea's plan to launch a long-range rocket

North Korea has readied a rocket for a launch from a forested valley in its remote northwest this week that will showcase the reclusive state's ability to fire a missile with the capacity to hit the continental United States.

 China's foreign minister said Sunday that his country is troubled by North Korea's plan to launch a long-range rocket and has urged more diplomacy to handle the situation, a measured response to a provocation that has unsettled the region.

Pyongyang says the rocket, to be launched this week, will only carry a weather satellite, but South Korea and the United States say it is a test of a ballistic missile. And although the risk of it veering off course is low, guidance remains its weakest point.

Following trilateral talks in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo, the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea both said a launch by North Korea would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions — indicating their belief that the North should face sanctions if it goes through with the plan.

But China, the North's closest ally, instead urged more dialogue and communication.

 

"The Chinese side is troubled by the developments, and strongly encourages everyone involved on all sides, at high and low levels, to remain calm and reasonable," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told reporters. "These issues need to be worked out in a diplomatic and peaceful manner."

Japan's Kyodo News service reported that Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said the three sides failed to reach a consensus on the launch, an apparent reference to China's softer approach.

North Korea announced plans to launch the satellite-bearing rocket to coincide with the 100th birthday celebrations of its founder, Kim Il-sung, a move that will help cement the prestige of his grandson Kim Jong-un, who took power in December.

In a rare move, reporters were taken to the new Sohae launch station, close to the border with China, where work was in progress to ready the 30-metre high Unha-3 rocket and its satellite.

The three-stage rocket was on the launch platform, indicating the launch will go ahead on plan between April 12-16.

Supreme Commander Kim Jong-un made a very bold decision that is why you are allowed to be this close to the launch site, site director Jang Myong Jin told visiting foreign journalists on Sunday.