Seoul announced Wednesday that North Korea had launched a rocket billed as a "space launch vehicle" South Korea and Japan issued brief warnings before estimating any danger. North Korea announced on Tuesday that it would launch a "military reconnaissance satellite" to "deal with the dangerous military actions of the United States and its vassals" The Japanese Ministry of Defence had ordered the shooting down of any missile confirmed to fall on land or sea territory, and had deployed SM-3 and Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles.