SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea defiantly carried out a provocative rocket launch today that the U.S., Japan and other nations suspect was a cover for a test of its long-range missile technology.

Liftoff took place at 11:30 a.m. today (4:30 p.m. yesterday Hawai'i time) from the coastal Musudan-ri launch pad in northeastern North Korea, the South Korean and U.S. governments said.

Four hours after the launch, North Korea declared it a success. The satellite reached outer space in just over nine minutes and was orbiting without any problems, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch from Pyongyang.

"The satellite is transmitting the melodies 'Song of Gen. Kim Il Sung' and 'Song of Gen. Kim Jong Il' as well as measurement data back to Earth," it said, referring to the country's late founder and his son, its current leader.

After the launch, Japan immediately called and received approval for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council today in New York.

The three-stage rocket flew over Japan, with its first two stages falling harmlessly into the Sea of Japan — also known as the East Sea — and Pacific Ocean, respectively.

The rocket reached Japanese airspace within seven minutes, but no debris appeared to hit its territory, officials in Tokyo said.

The first stage of the rocket dropped about 175 miles off the western coast of Akita into the waters between Japan and the Korean peninsula. The second stage was to land in the Pacific at a spot about 790 miles off Japan's northeastern coast, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said in Tokyo.

The Japanese government announced that it did not use its anti-missile defense system, which it had deployed in case debris from a failed launch imperiled its territory.

"Our primary concern is to confirm safety and gather information," Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said today.

Based on satellite photographs, experts said the missile appeared to be carrying a satellite payload that probably weighed 330 to 880 pounds. South Korea concurred today that the payload on the missile appeared to have been a satellite.

The apparently successful launch of the Taepodong-2 missile came on its second test. The first test in 2006 failed after less than a minute.

Experts said North Korea has been working on long-range missile development with Iran, which successfully launched a similar missile in February.

A 'RECKLESS' ACT

The launch was a bold act of defiance against Aso, President Obama, Hu Jintao of China and other leaders who pressed Pyongyang in the days leading up to liftoff to call off a launch they said would threaten peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

The U.S., South Korea, Japan and others suspect the launch is a guise for testing the regime's long-range missile technology — one step toward eventually mounting a nuclear weapon on a missile capable of reaching Alaska and beyond.

They earlier vowed to take North Korea to the U.N. Security Council for a launch they said violates a 2006 resolution barring the regime from ballistic missile activity.

South Korea's presidential Blue House called the launch a "reckless" move that poses a "serious threat" to stability on the Korean peninsula.

"We cannot contain our disappointment and regret over North Korea's reckless act," presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said today. He said the launch of the long-range rocket "poses a serious threat to security on the Korean peninsula and the world."

In a statement issued today in Prague, Czech Republic, the latest stop on his European tour, President Obama said, "With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations."

The launch "will prompt the United States to take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it cannot threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity," State Department spokesman Fred Lash said.

North Korea warned Japan that any attempt to intercept the satellite would mean war and threatened to shoot down American spy planes broaching its airspace.

Russia scrambled fighter jets to the Far East and put its troops there on alert, Sergei Roshcha, an aide to regional commander Lt. Gen. Valery Ivanov, told the Russian news agency Interfax.

EMERGENCY U.N. SESSION

Today's U.N. Security Council emergency session was set by Mexico's mission to the United Nations, spokesman Marco Morales said. Mexico holds the 15-nation council's presidency this month.

That approval came after Japan submitted a formal letter requested an emergency session of the United Nations council that handles threats to international peace and security.

Diplomats at the U.N. say the U.S., Britain, France and South Korea already have begun discussing a possible Security Council resolution to reaffirm its existing sanctions on North Korea. Those sanctions were imposed in 2006 in an attempt to persuade North Korea to shelve its nuclear program and halt long-range missile tests.

The diplomats said the U.S., Britain and France, which all hold veto power on the 15-nation council, are unlikely to seek new sanctions in the face of probable resistance from China, North Korea's closest ally, and Russia, the other two nations with veto power.