by CBS/AP
Published: Sun, April 05, 2009 - 5:27 am CST
Last Updated: Sun, April 05, 2009 - 5:32 am CST
(CBS/AP) The State Department says that North Korea has launched a rocket, following through on its promise of a launch despite international criticism. South Korea's presidential office said liftoff took place at 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning (10:30 p.m. Saturday, EDT) from the coastal Musudan-ri launch pad in northeastern North Korea.
State Department spokesman Fred Lash confirmed the event, and said, "We look on this as a provocative act."
The launch "will prompt the United States to take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it cannot threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity," Lash said.
"North's Korea's development, deployment and proliferation of missiles, ballistic missile-related materials, equipment and technologies pose a serious threat to the northeast Asia region and to the international community," Lash said.
Japanese broadcaster NHK cites the Japanese government as saying the rocket flew over Japan. It said there were no reports of any debris falling on Japan.
North Korea pushed ahead with the launch despite mounting international pressure to cancel a liftoff.
Japan has requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in response to the launch. South Korea, the U.S. and Japan had all said earlier in the week they would request such a meeting.
Spokesman Yutaka Arima says Japan's United Nations mission asked for a meeting of the 15-nation council Sunday.
The request must be approved by Mexico's mission to the U.N., which holds the council presidency this month.
The launch Sunday came amid heightened tensions in the region.
North Korea had informed international authorities that it planned to launch a rocket sometime between Saturday and Wednesday in order to put a communications satellite into orbit.
But the U.S., South Korea, Japan and others suspect it is a cover for testing a long-range missile for the North, which has nuclear weapons. Leaders from those countries had warned Pyongyang not to proceed with the planned rocket launch.
Such a test would be a first step toward putting a nuclear warhead on a missile capable of reaching Alaska and beyond.
U.S., Japan and South Korea had deployed warships with radar and other surveillance equipment in the waters near the communist nation to monitor the launch.
Two U.S. destroyers are believed to have departed from South Korea to monitor the launch. South Korea is using its destroyer equipped with Aegis ballistic missile defense technology, said a Seoul military official who asked not to be identified, citing department policy.
Japan deployed warships and Patriot missile interceptors off its northern coast to shoot down any wayward rocket parts that the North has said might fall over the area. Tokyo has said it is only protecting its territory and has no intention of trying to shoot down the rocket itself, but North Korea accused Japan of inciting militarism at home to justify developing a nuclear weapons program of its own.
In remarks Friday, President Barack Obama called the planned launch provocative. He that the threat of it put "enormous strains" on international talks over North Korea's disputed nuclear ambitions.
CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the rocket is carrying what the North Koreans call a communications satellite, which probably looks a lot like the one former weapons inspector David Albright once saw in the country.
"It's called Lodestar and it's really just something that goes beep beep beep," Albright told Martin. "It's not a sophisticated satellite by any means."
So why are some of the world's most powerful nations, including the U.S., warning there will be a stern response?
"The trouble is that that same missile can be reconfigured into an intercontinental ballistic missile," Albright said.
North Korea threatened a "thunderbolt of fire" if Japan were to try to intercept the rocket and warning U.S. ships - dispatched to monitor the launch - to back off or risk getting hit, too.
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