April 4, 2009

North Korea launches rocket

Per The Wall Street Journal, "North Korea launched a multi-stage rocket Sunday in defiance of international pressure."

Nearly 15 minutes before this news was confirmed by major news outlets such as BBC, CNN, and Reuters, @jasohill, a photographer of Hachimantai, Japan, broke the news to Twitter.

  1. Jason Hill
    jasohill This is for real folks. NORTH KOREA has just launched it missile.

Popular Twitter news service BNO was one minute behind that tweet with its first tweet on the news:

  1. BNO News
    BreakingNews FLASH -- TOKYO -- JAPANESE GOVERNMENT: NORTH KOREA HAS LAUNCHED ROCKET

@jasohill went on to provide these first-hand accounts from Japan:

  1. Jason Hill
    jasohill We have alarm bells going off here in Hachimantai. Has launched its rocket
  2. Jason Hill
    jasohill Warning alarms going off. We have a rocket heading over Japan
  3. Jason Hill
    jasohill This is not a false alarm. The North Korean rocket has been launched

Other Twitterers in the region noted the news, many of them breathing a sigh of relief when it became apparent they were out of harm's way.

  1. Akiko Hayashi
    akikohayashi (Tokyo, Japan) Missile: It's gone. Relieved. But how many more times do we have to experience the similar situation? This is enough.
  2. kyotonils
    kyotonils (Kyoto, Japan) NK launches missile and I'm 2 stories undereground in retail bunker (Hankyu). Commerce seemingly unaffected. Chou creme hoarding imminent...
  3. Steven
    SirSteven (Suzhou, China) North Korea has fired off its rocket-missile-satellite thingy, and no-one bothered to shoot it down... *yawn*
  4. Joshua Mitchell
    Mitchell1986 (Cheongju, South Korea) The missile has been launched.....and the world didn't end (at least for us in Asia)...now to move on....
  5. kkongchi
    kkongchi (Seoul, South Korea) I'm living in Seoul, Korea and All Media are saying on N.Korea's Rocket. but It seems that they launched Not Missile but Satellite.
  6. naoyuki takahashi
    naotakahashi (Gumma, Japan) Seemingly North Korea's "Flying Object" flew over Japan without any droppings.


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