I was famously quoted in the New York Times (and in Newsweek) as saying about the failure of the April 5th, 2009 satellite launch attempt:
It’s got to be embarrassing. I can imagine heads flying if the Dear Leader finds out the satellite didn’t fly into orbit.
Not too many people have noted the if in that quote — though I certainly wanted to emphasize it at the time. It turns out that the Dear Leader has not found out his satellite splashed into the sea: North Korea still maintain the satellite made it into orbit. One can certainly understand his advisors’ reluctance to correct that impression. I can even imagine Kim going to his space center to listen to it beep as it goes over head.
Unfortunately, its becoming clearer and clearer that North Korea really did achieve everything they need to to launch a two stage missile quite a distance.