Post date: Apr 13, 2012 12:8:28 AM
Japanese military was on high alert on the southern island of Ishigaki after North Korea launched a long-range missile.
South Korean officials later said the launch has ended in apparent failure.
ISHIGAKI, JAPAN (REUTERS) - North Korea's much hyped long-range rocket launch on Friday (April 13) ended in apparent failure, South Korean officials said, dealing a blow to the prestige of the reclusive and impoverished state that defied international pressure to push ahead with the plan.
Japanese military had missiles on the southern island of Ishigaki facing north towards North Korea, prepared to bring down the rocket if it veered off course or fell near inhabited lands.
North Korea said it wanted the Unha-3 rocket to put a weather satellite into orbit, although critics believed it was designed to enhance the capacity of North Korea to design a
ballistic missile deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States.
A spokesman for the Defence Ministry in Seoul told journalists that the rocket had broken up and crashed into the sea a few minutes after launch.
Officials from Japan confirmed the mission had failed, while ABC News cited U.S. officials saying it had failed, although there was no immediate indication of where it fell.
The rocket's flight was set to take it over a sea separating the Korean peninsula, with an eventual launch of a third stage of the rocket in seas near the Philippines that would have put the satellite into orbit.