US officials believe a controversial North Korean rocket failed moments after it was launched over the Pacific Ocean this morning, according to reports.
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The American ABC News network cited anonymous US officials as saying the missile was believed to have crashed into the sea.
The communist state had earlier announced plans to launch its controversial rocket, which it claimed was carrying a weather satellite but Western countries feared could be equipped to carry nuclear weapons, South Korea's Defence Ministry and US officials said.
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There were also concerns the rocket could potentially reach as far as Australia.
A spokesman for the Defence Ministry in Seoul told reporters at a briefing that the launch at taken place from North Korea's Sohae Satellite Launching Station at 7.39am local time and that South Korea and the United States were checking whether it had been a success.
The launch has drawn international criticism and threats to shoot the rocket down as well as sabotaged a food aid deal with the United States.
The Unha-3 rocket took off from a new launch site on the west coast of North Korea, near the Chinese border, and if successful will enhance Pyongyang's ability to build an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, critics say.
The three-stage rocket's flight path will take it over the sea between the Korean peninsula and China, where the first stage is due to splash down. A second stage is due to land in waters off the Philippines.
The launch had been timed to coincide with the 100th birthday celebrations of the isolated and impoverished state's founder, Kim Il-sung, and came after a food aid deal with the United States had hinted at an easing of tensions on the world's most militarised border.
North Korea’s government has said the action was part of celebrations and was not a long-range missile test. South Korean President Lee Myung Bak called an emergency Cabinet meeting in response.
Earlier, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported the rocket had been launched.
‘‘North Korea launched a long-range rocket and we’re tracking its trajectory,’’ a South Korean government source told Yonhap.
North Korea has previously said the rocket would place a satellite in orbit for peaceful research purposes, but Western critics see the launch as a thinly veiled ballistic missile test, banned by United Nations resolutions.
The Group of Eight powers on Thursday warned North Korea a launch would lead to action at the UN Security Council.
The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss Pyongyang’s rocket launch.
The action complicates US-led efforts to engage North Korea after Kim Jong Un took over control of the reclusive state following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in December. While Kim’s regime insisted the launch wouldn’t violate a February agreement to end nuclear and long-range missile tests in exchange for 240,000 tons of US food, Obama administration officials warned otherwise.
‘‘The speed of the turnaround raises questions about Pyongyang’s seriousness in saying that it desires to improve relations with us and its neighbors,’’ Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an April 10 speech to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
‘‘This launch will give credence to the view that North Korea leaders see improved relations with the outside world as a threat to the existence of their system.’’
'Beyond the limit'
The Obama administration has said firing the rocket would breach the February 29 food deal, which included a North Korean pledge to halt uranium enrichment at its main atomic facility in Yongbyon.
North Korea has criticized that stance, calling it an overreaction ‘‘beyond the limit’’ in a statement from an unnamed foreign ministry official cited by KCNA last month.
‘‘There is a pattern with North Korea of using missile tests as a means to celebrate and affirm the power of the regime and its military leaps in public,’’ said Peter Beck, Korea representative of the Asia Foundation in Seoul.
‘‘But I don’t think the public will be terribly impressed.’’
A South Korean intelligence report warned that North Korea may follow the rocket launch with the detonation of an atomic device. Recent activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site is consistent with preparations for previous detonations in 2006 and 2009
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission will review financial markets following North Korea’s rocket launch and discuss countermeasures at an emergency meeting, regulator spokesman Lee Byung Rhae said by phone today.
Reuters, agencies
