North Korea has acknowledged a multi-stage rocket it launched early Friday did not reach orbit.
An announcer on North Korean television - interrupting programming four hours after the launch, which was not broadcast - says the Kwangmyongsong-3 earth observation satellite didn't reach reaching orbit and scientific experts are investigating the reason for the failure.
Officials in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington say North Korea's rocket indeed blasted off from the launch pad but didn't get very far.
U.S. military officials called it a Taepo Dong-2 missile. They are saying it was tracked by satellite on a southern trajectory where the 1st stage fell into the Yellow Sea. The North American Aerospace Defense Command says the opposite two stages did not continue in flight and not posed a threat.
Related - North Korean Rocket Fails Shortly After Launch
South Korean army major general Shin Won-sik, talking to reporters on the defense ministry, says the missile began tumbling back to Earth at an altitude of 151 kilometers, separating into about 20 pieces and harmlessly falling into the Yellow Sea 100 to 150 kilometers offshore.
The general says the launch clearly violates UN resolutions 1718 and 1874 and was a test-firing of a protracted-rang missile disguised as a satellite launch. He adds this can be a grave provocation and a significant military threat to international society and the Republic of Korea.
Japan's defense forces, which includes the South Korean and U.S. militaries within the region, had deployed anti-missile batteries on land and at sea to possibly shoot down the item if it flew over Japanese or South Korean territories.
Authorities in Japan's southern Okinawan islands, that are near the intended flight path, activated public address loudspeakers soon after the launch.
Citizens were advised that there has been nothing to fret about from the North Korean missile launch while newspaper vendors handed out copies of additional editions.
The incident prompted emergency security meetings both in Seoul and in Tokyo.
The U.N. Security Council is to feature an agenda item about North Korea to its already scheduled Friday session.
The Group of Eight nations - composed of the us, Russia, Japan, Germany, the France, the uk, Italy and Canada - are calling for the United Nations to make a suitable response to Pyongyang's action.
South Korea's foreign minister, Kim Sung-hwan, strongly condemns the North going ahead with the launch.
Kim says it's truly regrettable that North Korea spends huge financial resources on developing nuclear weapons and missiles while its citizens are experiencing such hardships.
Japan is echoing similar sentiments, adding it's considering additional financial sanctions on North Korea.
This marks North Korea's third failed attempt at a claimed satellite launch.
There is growing speculation inside the intelligence community that North Korea will soon conduct a 3rd nuclear test. Such underground explosions of nuclear devices followed its two previous attempted launches of multi-stage missiles.
From WhatNewsToday.net
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