North Korea Basks in Triumphant Rocket Launch While World Fumes

The North American Aerospace Defense Command said Wednesday that the long-range rocket launched by North Korea earlier in the day appeared to have successfully put an object into orbit that Pyongyang claimed was a weather satellite.

The deeper implications are that North Korea can presumably launch a long-range ballistic missile containing a nuclear warhead, giving its government more clout with the international community and worrying its neighbors, particularly South Korea and Japan.

In fact, South Korea Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan called North Korea's action, which violates United Nations resolutions, "a threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula and around the world."

Japanese officials reported that all stages of Unha 3 rocket were found including the final one which wound up in the ocean, east of the Philippines.

While the Obama administration and the United Nations condemned the launch, Pyongyang's staunchest ally, China, acknowledged it was "concerned" by the rocket launch.

Meanwhile, China’s state-run Xinhua news service called for the resumption of six-party talks that seek to end the threat of a nuclear attack in the Korean peninsula.

As usual, it's difficult to predict North Korea's next move, especially with Kim Jong-un at the helm. Pyongyang said initially that the launch was scrubbed until late December so Wednesday's lift-off was obviously intended to catch the world off guard, another success for North Korea.