(6th LD) N. Korea's long-range rocket crashes shortly after takeoff
SEOUL, April 13 (Yonhap) — North Korea defiantly fired off a long-range rocket Friday, but the three-stage craft crashed in pieces into the sea shortly after takeoff, South Korean officials said.
The launch is expected to draw international condemnation as it violated a U.N. resolution that bans the communist nation from any ballistic missile activity that can be used to develop missiles carrying nuclear weapons.
The Unha-3 rocket took off from the Tongchang-ri launch site at 7:39 a.m., but appears to have separated into several pieces before crashing into the sea a few minutes after takeoff, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.
“South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities believe North Korea's missile launch ended in failure,” Kim said without providing further specifics, including how far the three-stage rocket traveled. “We will make an announcement later after making final confirmation.”
Military sources said the rocket appears to have landed in waters about 190 to 200 kilometers off South Korea's western port city of Gunsan, without the separation of its first and second stages.
Naval ships tracked the rocket's flight path, they said.
Japan's NHK reported that the North's rocket ascended about 400,000 feet (120 kilometers) above ground before being separated into four pieces and then crashing. The report cited a Japanese defense ministry official.
The North had said it would launch the rocket between April 12 and 16 to put what it claimed to be a satellite into orbit to mark the 100th birthday celebrations for Kim Il-sung, the country's late founder and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.
South Korea, the United States and other regional powers urged Pyongyang to call off the launch, denouncing it as a pretext to disguise a long-range missile test, banned under a U.N. Security Council resolution.
Foreign news reports said the U.N. Security Council will meet Friday to discuss the launch.
Calling the rocket no different from a long-range missile, South Korea condemned the launch as a “provocative act” that threatens peace and security in Northeast Asia and constitutes a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution.
“North Korea fired a de-facto long-range missile which it claims carried a so-called working satellite at 7:39 a.m. today, but it failed,” Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said, reading a government statement after President Lee Myung-bak held an emergency meeting with security ministers.
“Our government strongly condemns North Korea going ahead with the launch in disregard of the united calls from the international community that the launch plan be scrapped,” Kim said. “North Korea should take due responsibility for this.”
South Korea wants the U.N. Security Council to punish the North, officials said.
“Regardless of its success or failure, we urge the U.N. Security Council to take action against North Korea's rocket launch,” a senior official at Seoul's foreign ministry said, on condition of anonymity.
A defense committee of South Korea's National Assembly will also hold an emergency meeting at 3 p.m. Friday to discuss the launch, a committee official said.
“After North Korea launched its long-range rocket, the defense committee was urgently convened,” the official told Yonhap News Agency by phone.
In Washington, the White House was preparing to issue a formal response to the launch.
Officials at both the State Department and the Defense Department said they have nothing to say for now regarding reports of the North's rocket launch. The White House is in charge of releasing the initial response of the U.S. administration, the source told Yonhap News Agency.
North Korea announced the rocket launch plan just weeks after it reached a deal with the United States under which it agreed to put a moratorium on missile and nuclear tests and halt uranium enrichment in exchange for American food aid.
Washington officials have warned Pyongyang that a rocket launch would be a dealbreaker, casting further clouds over the prospects of resuming the long-stalled six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
Experts in Washington said the launch has effectively suspended negotiations, perhaps for good.
“It is unfortunate that North Korea has decided to go ahead with this launch,” Gordon Flake, executive director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation told Yonhap News Agency. “With this action, the pathway back to negotiations has been effectively closed down, and the prospects for increased tension and crisis have increased dramatically.”
Marcus Noland, a senior researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said it was unfortunate the North “decided to defy the U.N. Security Council and world opinion in engaging in this provocative act.”
“The good news is that the launch may have been unsuccessful if it did indeed malfunction before completing its intended mission,” he said, adding that the failure proved North Korean missiles may be unreliable and hence may not pose an immediate threat.
“North Korea's ability to gain useful data and experience from this test may not be so great if the missile malfunctioned,” he said.
The North's nuclear and missile programs have long been a regional security concern. The country is believed to have advanced ballistic missile technology, though it is still not clear whether it has mastered the technology to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.
This just in, haven’t plotted it yet:
Debris fell into the Yellow Sea at 124E 36N, about 5 minutes after launch.