Many Fear Regime Is Learning From Its 'Mistakes'

North Korea Wednesday test-launched yet another missile -- the seventh in 24 hours -- continuing to ignore international protests and warnings from the US that the missiles are a serious provocation.

Of the six missiles launched on America's Independence Day... at least one was a long-range Taepodong-2... supposedly able to reach targets on our West Coast.

As Aero-News reported, however, that missile failed after only 42-seconds in the air -- possibly the result of a catastrophic failure in the first-stage booster system.

But as one expert after another have pointed out in the past two days -- the North Koreans can indeed learn from their mistakes.

The Washington Post reports at the United Nations Wednesday... Japan demanded the international community impose sanctions on the Stalinist government of Kim Jong Il.

That resolution, however, probably won't have the immediate backing of North Korea's two main benefactors -- China and Russia.

Still... the Japanese say this situation is much more serious than the one in 1998... when North Korea test-fired another long-range missile... especially as North Korea has since withdrawn from the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

What's the old Chinese curse? "May you live in interesting times." We wonder what that translates into Korean as...

FMI: www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/index.html