The fruits of failure in North Korea:

North Korea has positioned a Taepodong-2 missile on the launchpad at its facility in Musudan in the east of the country, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

Pyongyang has said it intends to use the missile to launch a satellite into space. The North Koreans issued an international notice that the launch may occur sometime between April 4 through the 8th.

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But now that the missile is on the pad, the launch itself could come within a matter of days, a likelihood that has sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity as the event would be in violation of a U.N. ban prohibiting the country from ballistic activity. Some fear the launch is a cover for the test-fire of long-range missile technology. North Korea has described the pending launch a “peaceful space launch,” but U.S. officials and experts say it would employ the very same technology used to launch ballistic missiles, and if successful it would be the first proof that North Korea would have the ability to launch a ballistic missile against at least Alaska or Hawaii.

Japan has indicated its inclination to intercept any launch. Pyongyang has said that would constitute war. This is not Barack Obama’s fault and it’s not exclusively George W. Bush’s fault. It’s what comes from decades of unserious negotiation with bad actors.  McKittrick, at Closing Velocity, will undoubtedly be on top of any and all developments with sharp and timely analysis.