SEOUL, April 13 (Yonhap) -- North Korea defiantly fired off a long-range rocket Friday, officials said, in a move sure to spark strong international condemnations and escalate regional tensions. "We're now tracking the flight path," an official said on condition of anonymity.
The Unha-3 rocket took off from the Dongchang-ri launch site at 7:39 a.m., officials said.
The North had said it would launch the rocket between April 12-16 to put what it claims is a satellite into orbit to mark the 100th birthday of Kim Il-sung, the country's late founder and grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.
But South Korea, the United States and other regional powers had urged Pyongyang to call off the launch, seeing it as a pretext to disguise a long-range missile test banned under a U.N. Security Council resolution.