NoKor rocket dud relaxes NL alert

The Philippines lifted the "no-fly" and "no-sail" zone declarations over Northern Luzon as it relaxed its alert after North Korea's rocket launch failed.

"The alert level is lowered from red to blue. No-fly zone, no-sail zone, no fishing zone are hereby lifted," announced Benito Ramos, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, in a press conference more than an hour after the failed North Korean rocket launch.

Ramos said all responders of the Office of Civil Defense in regions 1, 2, 3, Cordillera Administrative Region, 4A, 4B, Metro Manila and in Bicol have been advised of the relaxing of the alert level.

Responders in the northern part of Luzon, including the Philippine Navy, Philippine National Police-Maritime Group and the Philippine Coast Guard, have been ordered to inform vessels of the no-sail and no-fishing zone declarations.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, meanwhile, said that the rerouting plan of the airplanes will still be implemented.

Defying international warning, North Korea launched a long-range rocket at 7:39 a.m. Friday from the west coast launch pad in the hamlet of Tongchang-ri.

The launch, however, failed, US officials said in Washington.

Japan's Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka also confirmed that the launched failed.

"We have confirmed that a certain flying object has been launched and fell after flying for just over a minute," he said.

Ramos said that based on intelligence information relayed by the US to the Philippines, the whole rocket fell within the territorial waters of North Korea in less than a minute after it was launched.

Maximo Sacro, founder of the Philippine Astronomical Society, said that it means the rocket failed to detach from the first-stage blasters.

Meanwhile, news agencies reported in Pyongyang, there was no word about a launch, and state television was broadcasting video for popular folk tunes. North Korean officials said they would make an announcement about the launch "soon."

North Korea had earlier announced it would send a three-stage rocket mounted with a satellite as part of celebrations honoring national founder Kim Il Sung, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated Sunday April 8.

Space officials say the rocket is meant to send a satellite into orbit to study crops and weather patterns — its third bid to launch a satellite since 1998.

The United States, Britain, Japan and others, however, have called such a launch a violation of U.N. resolutions prohibiting North Korea from nuclear and ballistic missile activity.

Experts say the Unha-3 carrier is the same type of rocket that would be used to launch a long-range missile aimed at the U.S. and other targets. North Korea has tested two atomic devices but is not believed to have mastered the technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has warned that the launch would be a direct threat to regional security and said the U.S. would pursue "appropriate action" at the U.N. Security Council if North Korea goes ahead with it.

According to projections, the first stage of the rocket was to fall into the ocean off the western coast of South Korea, while a second stage would fall into waters off the eastern coast of the Philippine island of Luzon.

North Korean space officials have dismissed assertions that the launch is a cover for developing missile technology as "nonsense."