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When it comes to sticking a finger in the rest of the world's eye, Kim Jong Il is always as good as his word. For days, the U.S. and North Korea's neighbors in east Asia kept insisting that Pyongyang stand down from plans to test an intercontinental rocket. But on Sunday morning, North Korea launched it anyway - as it pledged to - saying the rocket bore nothing more than a communications satellite. With six U.S. cruisers equipped with Aegis anti-missile systems deployed in the region - to watch and gather intelligence, not fire on the rocket, Pentagon officials...
...Stephen Bosworth, has said that launch or no launch, Washington hoped to push on with talks aimed at getting the North to give up its nuclear weapons program - even hinting that the direct U.S.-North Korean talks Pyongyang has always wanted were possible. (See pictures of the rise of Kim Jong...
...right to place communications satellites into orbit, and the U.S. military on Sunday confirmed that the payload atop the latest rocket was, indeed, a satellite - which failed to leave the Earth's atmosphere, instead plunging into the Pacific. (Read about what North Korea could look like after Kim Jong...
...moment when the Obama administration has indicated it is willing to engage with hostile regimes - Iran and Syria specifically - Pyongyang "just threw a big rock at the White House, and said, 'We're here, too,'" says one Western diplomat in Seoul. Internally, the launch comes at a critical moment. Kim Jong Il had a stroke late last summer, and there is intense speculation as to the state of Kim's health and his level of control over his regime. "The launch says to North Koreans that not only is Kim in control, he's flexing his muscles and will soon...
Intelligence sources concede they are in the dark about any relationship between Kim Jong Un and Chang. If Kim died suddenly, analysts think, Chang would become the de facto leader even if one of the sons was put forward as a front man to maintain the dynasty. That implies that in all likelihood, the post-Kim Jong Il era will look a lot like the present. The country's unifying ideology, called juche, is usually translated as "self-reliance." But as a Western diplomat in Seoul says, "it's more like 'up yours.' " No sign of that changing...