SEOUL—North Korea launched a multistage rocket Friday morning, again defying countries that want it to stop pursuing advanced weapons, but it blew up less than two minutes into flight and parts crashed in the Yellow Sea off South Korea. Despite the failure, the U.S. and its allies quickly condemned the launch, with the White House saying that a food agreement it had reached with Pyongyang in February was dead. But the launch also denied North Korea a key propaganda victory and raised questions about the state of its ballistic missile technology. The rocket took off at 7:39 a.m. local time from a new launch facility in the country's northwest corner and flew south toward Japan's Ryukyu Islands, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia. It apparently exploded about 80 seconds into flight, roughly the time its first stage should have burned out and second stage kicked in, U.S. and South Korean defense officials said. Pyongyang issued a brief statement saying, "The earth observation satellite failed to enter its preset orbit," and added that its scientists were "looking into the cause of the failure." The admission of failure, which came more than four hours after the launch, is a sign that North Korea's government recognizes that its ability to control information has weakened. It contrasts with its past launch attempts, which it declared to be successful despite clear evidence of failure. The North American Aerospace Command, which tracked the rocket's flight, said debris began falling into the Yellow Sea about 100 miles west of Seoul. South Korea's military said the rocket broke in two parts. The first part split into 10 pieces that fell in waters west and slightly south of Seoul. The second part flew a bit farther south, then broke into three pieces that fell in waters west of Gunsan. The South's navy recovered some large debris off the coast of Gunsan Friday afternoon, but officials said they weren't certain it was from the rocket. "The North Koreans are now zero for three," said a U.S. official, in reference to earlier rocket launch attempts that either failed after launch or were doubted to have successfully delivered satellites into orbit. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that despite the failure, North Korea's "provocative action threatens regional security, violates international law and contravenes its own recent commitments." A senior administration official said the agreement announced in February to provide food assistance to North Korea was now off the table—a threat the White House had made in recent weeks as it sought to dissuade Pyongyang from launching. U.S. officials said earlier this week that they had Naval assets in the area to monitor and track the rocket after its launch. Those same assets could be used to try to pick up the pieces. South Korea's Defense Ministry said Friday that it was searching for the debris. A top Senate Republican, Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona, said that even a failed launch could still offer "useful information on North Korea's development of technology capable of delivering a nuclear weapon that can threaten American cities tomorrow." A successful flight would have lasted about 10 minutes, with the rocket's third stage entering space somewhere above the Philippines and Indonesia, according to plans sent by North Korean space officials to international aviation and maritime authorities. Three previous attempts to fire a long-range missile also failed. On two of those occasions, North Korea's authoritarian government told its people that it sent a rocket carrying a satellite into space. The senior administration official said that the failure of the latest launch shows that the North Korean missile program hasn't advanced since its last launch attempt in 2009, welcome news to U.S. officials. "They're not moving forward. If anything they're stuck in place or moved backwards," he said. "It does demonstrate that they are not advancing their ballistic missile technology." He said that this may be due to sanctions that are designed to restrict North Korea's ability to acquire or trade technologies that support the nuclear program. But he said it was impossible to say for certain if there is a link. In any case, he said, the failure will make it harder for the North Koreans to sell their nuclear technology elsewhere, more welcome news for the U.S. and its allies. North Korea, since announcing the launch last month, portrayed it as an attempt to send a satellite into space and said it was timed to coincide with celebrations of the 100th anniversary on Sunday of the birth of the country's founder, Kim Il Sung. "It was a high-risk gamble, not only putting itself before the world but also during this week of the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung," said Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow and Korea specialist at the Heritage Foundation. The U.S. and other countries viewed the launch as a disguised test of long-range missile technology and urged North Korea not to go through with it. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned earlier this week that the launch "will violate United Nations Security Council resolutions and put its neighbors and region at risk." The U.N. Security Council planned an emergency meeting over the launch on Friday. Among the loudest critics were Japan and the Philippines, which had territory along the rocket's projected course that might be hit by spent parts. The specter of North Korea's military ambitions has been especially worrying for Japan, which had seen previous North Korean launches over its territory. Its self-defense force had deployed antimissile interceptors on land and at sea ahead of the launch with orders to destroy the rocket or any of its parts if they posed any threat to Japanese land. The planned trajectory was to take the rocket over some small Japanese islands. "Even if the launch ended up a failure, it violates U.N. resolutions and is a major provocation to Japan. We will protest to Pyongyang through diplomatic channels," chief government spokesman Osamu Fujimura said at a morning news conference. Leaders of other countries in recent weeks urged North Korea not to proceed with the launch, saying it violated restrictions imposed by the United Nations Security Council after previous launches and weapons activities. The death in December of dictator Kim Jong Il and transition of control to his son Kim Jong Eun complicated plans by the North's government to use the Kim Il Sung centennial as a moment to declare itself as a "strong and prosperous nation." While North Korea remains one of the most impoverished nations in the world, its pursuit of nuclear weapons and rocket technology is something the government has used to try rallying pride and support. Pyongyang's conflict with other countries over the launch has played out in the same fashion as the previous three times it fired a long-range rocket—in August 1998, July 2006 and April 2009. It said it sent satellites into space with the 1998 and 2009 launches, though none have ever been found by international authorities.
—William Sposato in Tokyo, Soo-ah Shin in Seoul and Julian E. Barnes in Washington contributed to this article. Write to Evan Ramstad at evan.ramstad@wsj.com and Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com
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