SEOUL, Feb. 7 -- South Korean's military has seen a rocket launched by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) successfully entering into space, regarding it as a similar intercontinental ballistic missile to the Unha-3 rocket test-fired in late 2012.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff reported on the launch to the parliamentary defense committee on Sunday, according to Rep. Yun Hu-deok of the main opposition Minju Party, a member of the committee.

The South Korean military estimated that the DPRK rocket was a three-stage ICBM similar to the Unha-3 rocket, launched by Pyongyang in December 2012.

The rocket is believed to have a range of about 5,500-10,000 km. The first stage of the rocket fell in waters near South Korea's western border island of Baengnyeong, with the second stage landing off the southwest of the southern resort island of Jeju.

Where the third stage landed hasn't been identified as it disappeared from radars of South Korea's military.

To track a DPRK rocket after the launch, South Korea had deployed surveillance assets, including Aegis-equipped destroyer, ground-based Green Pine radar and Peace Eye airborne early warning and control aircraft.

No civilian damage in South Korea hasn't been reported from aircrafts and shipping. The rocket didn't fly over South Korea's territory.

The DPRK's state media reported Sunday that it had successfully launched a Kwangmyongsong-4 Earth observation satellite into orbit just 9 minutes and 46 seconds after the launch at 9:30 a.m. (0030 GMT).

Pyongyang has claimed the rocket launch is a space program for peaceful purpose, but Seoul has denounced it as ballistic missile development. Rockets and ballistic missiles have lots of overlapping technologies.

The launch came a day after the DPRK announced its revised plan to move up the launch window to Feb. 7-14 from the previous Feb. 8-25.

On Jan. 6, the DPRK said it had tested what it claimed was its first hydrogen bomb in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

The DPRK is banned under UN Security Council resolutions from testing a rocket by use of ballistic missile technology and staging a nuclear test. Pyongyang detonated atomic devices in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

South Korea's presidential office issued a statement to criticize the launch, saying that it came in defiance of repeated warnings from the international community. Seoul called for tougher new sanctions against the DPRK at the UN Security Council.

President Park Geun-hye convened an emergency meeting of the national security council, and Seoul's foreign ministry requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss countermeasures. The meeting is scheduled to be held at 11 a.m. (New York time), according to the ministry.

South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo held a meeting with Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), saying the DPRK's missile launch was a direct challenge to the international community as it came amid ongoing discussions at the UN Security Council about new sanctions against Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test.

Han stressed need for additional pressures on the DPRK to make it recognize a fact that the country cannot survive unless it gives up nuclear weapons, calling for close cooperation between Seoul and Washington in response to a series of recent DPRK provocations.