North Korea launched its long-awaited rocket Friday morning, but it fell apart within minutes, U.S. officials said.

The rocket made it off the launch pad, but fell apart shortly afterward, two U.S. officials told CNN.

Japanese Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka said it fell into the sea after a minute.

No piece of the rocket reached space, a U.S. official told CNN, basing the conclusion on data collected by the United States from its first few moments aloft.

"This was supposed to be associated with (Kim Jong Un's) ascension to power. So for this thing to fail ... is incredibly embarrassing," said Victor Cha, former director of Asian affairs for the U.S. National Security Council and now a Georgetown University professor.

The launch occurred at 7:39 a.m. Friday, both Yonhap and YTN reported, citing South Korean officials.

Immediately afterward, the South Korean military dispatched helicopters and ships in an attempt to find debris related to the rocket launch, according to YTN.

North Korea had said the Unha or Galaxy rocket would fly southward, carrying its Kwangmyongsong-3 communications satellite, and  insisted the launch was for peaceful purposes.

South Korea, Japan and the Philippines, the countries near the projected trajectory, were on heightened alert in case the launching went awry and might endanger their citizens or properties,the New York Times reported. Airlines and ships had been ordered to stay away from the rocket's trajectory and the flashdown zones of its debris.

The launch has drawn international criticism and threats to shoot the rocket down as well as sabotaged a food aid deal with the United States.

The Unha-3 rocket took off from a new launch site on the west coast of North Korea, near the Chinese border, and if successful will enhance Pyongyang's ability to build an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

The three-stage rocket's flight path will take it over the sea between the Korean peninsula and China, where the first stage is due to splash down. A second stage is due to land in waters off the Philippines.

Earlier Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sternly rebuked North Korea for its planned rocket satellite launch.

"I only hope that DPRK [North Korea] authorities will heed the calls of the international community. It is clearly a violation of Security Council Resolution 1874," Ban said in Geneva, according to Reuters.

North Korea says the launch of the Unha-3 rocket is only designed to send a new observation satellite into orbit, but a number of global powers have condemned the launch as a thinly veiled test of a new long-range missile, one that could carry a nuclear warhead in the future.

On Thursday, Ban said the launch could further poison North Korea's relationship with its neighbors -- although he didn't give specifics, Ban's native South Korea is particularly on edge.

"It seems to me that, considering what measures they have taken until today, by inviting foreign journalists, showing their launching pad, that they may proceed, unfortunately," the U.N. chief noted.

China's ambassador to the United Nations also expressed concern about what the launch, and the current discussion surrounding it, means for regional security.

"We have got to do everything possible to defuse tension rather than inflame the situation there," said Li Baodong in New York. "So I think we should do everything possible to make sure that peace and stability is maintained."

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