VOA: North Korean Rocket Fails Shortly After Launch Apr 12, 2012 – Steven Herman
North Korea tried and failed on Friday to launch a multi-stage rocket. Things
appeared to go wrong shortly after the blast-off.
Officials in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington say North Korea did get its rocket
off the launch pad at about 07:40 in the morning.
But South Korea Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok calls the launch a
failure.
Kim says it is suspected that it failed shortly after the launch, breaking
into pieces and losing altitude.
Japanese Deputy Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura concurs with that
assessment, adding that the flight lasted only a minute or two.
Fujimura says there is no indication any debris fell on Japanese territory.
Initial reports are that the debris may have fallen into the Yellow Sea about
200 kilometers west of the South Korean coast.
Japan's defense forces, along with the South Korean and U.S. militaries in
the region, had deployed anti-missile batteries on land and at sea to
possibly shoot down the object if it flew over Japanese or South Korean
territories.
Japan, the United States and other countries regard the launch as a covert
test of ballistic missile technology, in violation of United Nations Security
Council resolutions.
The launch prompted emergency security meetings both in Seoul and in Tokyo.
The U.N. Security Council is to discuss North Korea during a previously
scheduled Friday session.
South Korea's foreign minister, Kim Sung-hwan, strongly condemns the North
going ahead with the launch.
Kim says it is truly regrettable that North Korea spends huge financial
resources on developing nuclear weapons and missiles while its citizens are
experiencing such hardships.
Reporters in Pyongyang who had been told they would be able to view the
launch from an observation center were not taken there. At a newsroom set up
for the visiting correspondents, North Korean officials declined to answer
any questions immediately after the failed launch.
