The world’s news services are stumbling over each other’s feet tonight.

The BBC says: North Korea ‘has launched rocket’.

But Reuters says: Japan red-faced over mistaken N.Korean rocket report.

We’ll find out who’s right shortly.

UPDATE at 4/4/09 8:16:31 pm:

Looks like they did: North Korea Defies Warnings, Launches Powerful Rocket.

TOKYO, April 5 — North Korea has launched a long-range missile, defying repeated international warnings, worrying its neighbors and setting itself up for increased sanctions.

The launch, from a base on the country’s northeast coast, came shortly after 10:30 p.m. EDT. North Korea said the “peaceful” launch would put a communications satellite into orbit, but the United States, Japan and South Korea described it as a provocative test of a ballistic missile that could fly as far as the western United States.

As it expands its formidable arsenal of rockets, North Korea is also trying to make nuclear warheads small enough to fit atop medium- and long-range ballistic missiles, U.S. intelligence officials said.

President Obama said Friday that the launch would “put enormous strains” on multi-nation negotiations with North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons. He added that the United States will “take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it can’t threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity.”