North Korea appears to have launched rocket - Japan
Sat Apr 4, 2009 10:37pm EDT

TOKYO, April 5 (Reuters) - North Korea appeared to have launched a
rocket on Sunday, Japan's government said, although it was not
immediately clear if it had launched the long-range version that the
United States, Japan and South Korea have said would be a disguised
missile test.

"A rocket appears to have been launched from North Korea," the prime
minister's office said in a statement.

North Korea had said it was sending a satellite into space and gave
international agencies notice of a planned trajectory that would take
the rocket over Japan, dropping booster stages to the east and west.

The United States, South Korea and Japan have said they would see the
launch as a test of the North's long-range Taepodong-2 missile, which
is designed to fly as far as Alaska. Washington has said there would be
consequences if Pyongyang went ahead with the launch. (Reporting by
Kiyoshi Takenaka and Linda Sieg; Editing by Dean Yates)
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSTKE004252