"Shortly after the launch, we sent a destroy order to the rocket as we concluded that the mission cannot fulfil the purpose," said Shoko Yamamoto, a spokesman for the satellite launch project.

"We cannot tell further details, but at least we can say this mission ended in failure," Yamamoto said.

Television footage showed a Japanese H-2A rocket with the two spy satellites lifting off smoothly from a launch site on the southern island of Tanegashima some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) southwest of Tokyo at 1:33 pm (0433 GMT).

But the governmental Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Tanegashima Space Center decided to destroy the rocket and the satellites due to "some troubles in the rocket," public broadcasting network NHK said.

They had been scheduled to join another pair of spy satellites, which were launched in March in a 250 billion yen (2.3 billion dollar) government project to put four spy satellites into full operation this year.

The launch of the second pair, originally set for September 10, had been delayed by prolonged preparations and replacement of parts. It was further pushed back after trouble occurred in the H-2A rocket hours before its lift-off on September 27.

North Korea has denounced the deployment of the first two satellites as a "hostile act", which could trigger a renewed arms race.

The satellite project was intended as a response to North Korea's firing of a suspected Taepodong ballistic missile over Japan into the Pacific in August 1998, a move that sent shockwaves around the region.

SPACE.WIRE