N Korean launch not total failure: analysts

Although the distance was still far short of showing North Korea could reach U.S. territory, it rattled the North's neighbors and countries around the globe, with the U.S. and its allies pushing for quick punishment at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting held hours after liftoff. Council members met for three hours Sunday but failed to release even a customary preliminary statement of condemnation - evidence of the challenges in agreeing on some kind of punishment. China and Russia hold veto power and could water down any response.

Diplomats privy to the closed-door talks say China, Russia, Libya and Vietnam were concerned about further alienating and destabilizing North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il personally observed the launch, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday, expressing "great satisfaction" with the achievement.

But Kim Tae-woo, an analyst at Seoul's state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the launch raises the stakes at stalled disarmament talks because Pyongyang now has more to bargain away. "Militarily and politically, it's not a failure" because "North Korea demonstrated a greatly enhanced range," Kim said.