The Rachel Maddow Show   |  December 11, 2012

North Korea launches rocket

Ezra Klein reports the breaking news that North Korea has test-fired a long range rocket in defiance of the international community.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> we have more breaking news to report tonight. this news coming now from overseas. according to officials in south korean japan, the rogue nation has fired a long-range rocket tonight in defiance of the international community . the missile was reportedly launched at 9:51 a.m . local time . it's unclear whether the launch was successful. sometimes they just fall into the water. but japanese officials say tonight they believe the missile passed over okinawa, japan. north korea announced at the beginning of the month they intended to launch the missile, but there were reports as recently as this afternoon they had had to dismantle the rocket to make repairs to it. again, tonight it appears north korea has in fact fired the rocket. this is north korea 's second rocket launch under its new leader, kim jun un. a similar rocket broke up less than two minutes in flight. officials claim this launch is intended to put a weather satellite into space. but many officials and many in the international community believe north korea may be testing its capability to one day launch a long-range nuclear warhead. this comes at a politically sensitive time. neighboring south carolina is set to hold its presidential election in a due phew days. south korea announced tonight it's calling an emergency meeting of the top security officials. again, it is unclear at this point whether this was a successful rocket launch . but north korea has apparently defied the international community again, testing its second long-range missile this year alone under its new leader. we will keep you updated with any new developments