Humiliating rocket launch raises fears of North Korea detonating nuclear device

By Julian Ryall, Tokyo6:30PM BST 13 Apr 2012
The rocket – which military experts say was identical to a ballistic missile – was designed to put a satellite into orbit, North Korea claims, but suffered a catastrophic structural failure a little over one minute after being fired at 7:39am local time on Friday and broke into four pieces.
The remnants of the weapon fell into the sea off the coast of South Korea, which had already stationed naval units in the area and immediately set about recovering the debris from the launch.
North Korea had invited foreign media to Pyongyang to witness the launch, which had been billed as the centrepiece of a week of celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founder of the nation.
Unable to conceal the fact that it had ended in disaster, the regime admitted four hours after the launch that the rocket had failed to put the Earth-observation satellite into orbit.
Officials in Pyongyang said "scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure," the Korean Central News Agency said.