North Korea Launches Long-Range Missile

South Korean officials say North Korea has launched a long-range missile, which it claims is a space rocket aiming to put a satellite in orbit.  The move comes against the warnings of even the North Koreans allies, which is widely seen as a test of a nuclear-capable missile.

FOX News Radio’s Alastair Wanklyn reports from Tokyo:

North Korea has nuclear weapons, but not yet the ability to hit the United States.  This launch brings it a step closer to that.

Ahead of the launch, allies China and Russia urged Pyongyang not to do it, and nations such as South Korea and Japan said the U.N. Security Council should now tighten sanctions to the level currently imposed on Iran.  And North Korea seemed to blink: days before the scheduled launch window, state media reporting a fault in the rocket’s first-stage engine which would necessitate a delay.

In Tokyo, Alastair Wanklyn, FOX News Radio.