PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA (BNO NEWS) -- North Korea has launched a long-range rocket, the South's Yonhap news agency reports.
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Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) April 12, 2012BREAKING NEWS — South Korea and U.S. gov't confirm North Korea has launched rocket—
Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) April 12, 2012
REU: LAUNCH TOOK PLACE AT 0739 LOCAL TIME – SOUTH KOREA DEFENCE
MINISTRY—
Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) April 12, 2012
REU: SKOREA AND U.S. CHECKING WHETHER LAUNCH A SUCCESS – SKOREAN
DEFENCE MIN—
Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) April 12, 2012
Understandably, a lot of people on Twitter freaked out:
NORTH KOREA YOU BETTER STOP! -.——– Im so fucking scared =(—
Thu Ha (@th2710) April 12, 2012
Rockets launched from North Korea. Could this mean war…—
Gina (@MissGFLA) April 12, 2012
North Korea did it. They launched the rocket. Prayers for the Philippines and all the other countries affected. #worldpeace—
Patricia Hizon (@patriciahizon) April 12, 2012
North Korea just launched a long range rocket … WW3 soon ?—
Walter Yamel (@W_Yamel) April 12, 2012
Awwww shit we're fucked! Nice knowin everyone RT #BREAKINGNEWS ABC News has learned North Korea has launched its rocket—
CJ (@MoFkn_CJ) April 12, 2012
North Korea launches their missile against the will of the rest of the world. Very frightening future possibilities.—
Hunter K. Cabe (@HuntKeatCab) April 12, 2012
Stop Tweeting. Pay Attention To What North Korea Just Did.—
Celsius (@CelsiusAsHmself) April 12, 2012
Fortunately, the news soon broke that the launch had failed:
RT @stevenportnoy: BREAKING: ABC's Martha Raddatz reports the North Korean rocket launch has FAILED.—
Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) April 12, 2012
BREAKING — U.S. officials claim North Korean rocket launch is a failure, ABC News reports—
Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) April 12, 2012
RT @felix85: AFP ALERT Japan says N- Korean ‘flying object’ falls into the ocean—
Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) April 12, 2012
Kyodo: Japanese Defense Minister Tanaka says NKorean rocket flew more than a minute before failing—
Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) April 12, 2012
REU: SKOREA'S DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS ROCKET BROKE UP AND CRASHED AFTER
A FEW MINUTES—
Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) April 12, 2012
And Twitter was able to relax and be snarky:
First comment from NoKo: Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earthshattering kaboom?—
Nathan Wurtzel (@NathanWurtzel) April 12, 2012
North Korea doesn't seem to be very good at making missiles.—
Elizabeth Crum (E!!) (@elizcrum) April 12, 2012
C'mon, NoKo, this isn't rocket science! #NailedIt—
Andy Levy (@andylevy) April 12, 2012
North Korea celebrates the return of "Mad Men" with a retro-style launch attempt.—
Joshua Treviño (@jstrevino) April 12, 2012
North Korea just tried to do something again. Cute.—
Eric John Barton (@erockbart) April 12, 2012
Hey North Korea, all your successful missile bases are belong to US.—
Steven Ertelt (@StevenErtelt) April 12, 2012
#nkrocket – Worst job in the world? North Korean rocket engineer, 2nd worst job in the world – Head of North Korea Space Program—
Rex Wood (@rexbwood) April 12, 2012
Dickheads, I remember when I built my 1st rocket. #scienceproject “@toriblaseCNN: North Korea long-range rocket broke apart after launch.”—
John Stuetz (@JohnStuetz_PSU) April 12, 2012
How much duct tape did North Korea use to make sure the rocket was intact?—
B.L. Haywood (@BLHolla) April 12, 2012
Congratulations to North Korea for their incredibly public failure to get it up. gizmo.do/HOUojc #NiceRocket—
Dan Caiola (@Card042) April 12, 2012
Chin up, North Korea. I think your missiles come with a 10 year/100K mi warranty.—
Michael Deppisch (@deppisch) April 13, 2012
If north korea can't even make a rocket how are they going to be the bad guys in the new red dawn movie?#wolverines—
Adam Kittrell (@cak_attack) April 12, 2012
For some reason, all I can think of right now is, "You aw worthless Awec Bawdwin, now my stock in you has fawwin…"—
(@jimgeraghty) April 12, 2012
Josh Treviño was able to bring today’s news full-circle:
Getting word that the North Korean rocket followed the same trajectory as Hilary Rosen's PR expertise.—
Joshua Treviño (@jstrevino) April 12, 2012
And then, well, there was this:
This tweet now deleted, alas: RT @McCainBlogette: I just saw the words "rocket" and "Korea" in my timeline – what the hell is going on?—
Joshua Treviño (@jstrevino) April 12, 2012
MSNBC really scored when they snatched her up as a political contributor before anyone else did. They rely on keen analysis of world events over there.
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Nathan Wurtzel and Eric H. offer more sobering perspectives:
Less funny: A lot of people likely will be executed as a result of the failure.—
Nathan Wurtzel (@NathanWurtzel) April 12, 2012
Some North Korean rocket scientists will be disappearing today.—
Eric H. (@ericinva) April 12, 2012