Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee says North Korea has failed to put a satellite into orbit, saying that the rocket and the payload it was carrying seem to have fallen into the sea.

In a testimony to the National Assembly Defense Committee on Sunday, Lee said the government believes that no object has entered the earth's orbit, but that the government will continue to analyze data on the North's rocket launch in cooperation with the United States.

The U.S. military also said that no object has entered orbit. The North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command said Sunday that the first stage of the rocket fell into the East Sea, and the second and third stages, and its payload, landed elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

Earlier in the day, North Korea claimed the rocket was successfully launched. The North's state-run news agency KCNA said the Gwangmyeongseong-Two experimental communications satellite entered the earth's orbit and was transmitting related data back to the earth.