Fail: North Korean long-range rocket breaks apart after one minute of flight

This wouldn't be a good day to be a North Korean rocket scientist.

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) -- Defying warnings from the international community, North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Friday, but it broke apart before escaping the earth's atmosphere and fell into the sea, officials said.

"It flew about a minute, and it flew into the ocean," said Noriyuki Shikata, a spokesman for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

He added that Japanese authorities "have not identified any negative impacts, so far," though he said the international ramifications could be significant. "This is something that we think is a regrettable development," he said.

Joseph Cirincione, president of the global security foundation The Ploughshares Fund, told CNN that the launch's apparent failure "shows the weakness of the North Korea missile program" and suggests that the threat from North Korea has been "exaggerated."

"It's a humiliation," he told CNN. "I wouldn't want to be a North Korean rocket scientist today."

Hope North Korea likes the taste of rocket exhaust

The U.S. threatens to cut off food aid to North Korea if they go ahead with the planned ballistic missile test rocket launch. Rumors are the will soon conduct another nuclear test. Lets review; launch a rocket that can hit the U.S. and follow it up with a nuclear test. I will give you one guess what message they are trying to send.

Via ABC News:

The White House bluntly warned North Korea on Tuesday that going ahead with a long-range rocket launch would mean an end to planned American food aid to the secretive and starvation-plagued country.

"It's impossible to imagine that we would be able to follow through (and) provide the nutritional assistance that we had planned on providing, given what would be a flagrant violation of North Korea's basic international obligations," Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters aboard Air Force One.

North Korea says its rocket launch, expected between Thursday and Monday, aims to put a satellite called Kwangmyongsong-3 (Shining Star) in orbit as it marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the regime's founder, Kim Il Sung. But the United States and other countries have denounced the move as an attempt to test, or show off, the country's ballistic missile capabilities.

Iran is graduating from launching monkey dolls into space to launching actual monkeys

Don't they know monkeys are infidels? The should launch Ahmadinejad instead.

MOSCOW, April 20 (RIA Novosti) — Iran plans to launch a monkey into space in mid-September, the ISNA news agency said on Wednesday, citing Iranian Space Agency head Hamid Fazeli.

The monkey will be sent into orbit in a capsule carried by the Kavoshgar-4 (or Explorer-4), rocket, which was test-launched with a monkey doll on board in mid-March.

Iran announced an ambitious space program in the mid-2000s. The country launched the Kavoshgar 1 rocket into space in February 2008.
The Kavoshgar 2 rocket, carrying a space lab and a restoration system, was launched in November 2008.
In February 2010, the Kavoshgar 3 rocket reportedly carried a test capsule with a rat, a turtle and worms into space.

UN slaps North Korea's hand and sends them to bed without their milk and cookies

The UN agreed today on a statement to condemn North Korea's missile launch. The statement condemns the launch and calls for unspecified additional sanctions. This is the weakest response besides completely ignoring the event. Japan caved in on their demand for a new resolution against the North Koreans. A statement is not even legally binding according to some experts. Here is the story from breitbart.com.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Key Security Council nations reached agreement Saturday on a statement that would condemn North Korea's rocket launch and toughen U.N. sanctions against the reclusive communist nation.

The five permanent veto-wielding members—the U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France—and Japan reached agreement after Tokyo backed down from a demand that the Security Council adopt a new resolution, the strongest response the U.N.'s most powerful body can give.

They distributed the text of the proposed presidential statement to the nine other council members, who must now consult their capitals. Libya's deputy U.N. ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said he expects the council to meet again Monday.

A presidential statement is considered a weaker reaction by the council, and while the U.S. insists it is legally binding, others do not.