The North Korean satellite fib...

The BBC reports that North Korea has failed to get anything into orbit. The US military says that the two-stage rocket and its payload crashed into the Pacific Ocean. The really funny thing is that North Korea insisted for a while that the satellite had reached orbit and was transmitting data back to Earth ...the little liars.

That this was almost certainly a test of a long-range missile capable of hitting the continental US is immaterial. What's galling is that this pointless missile programme exists in the first place. There's no warhead to put atop it. No, what's really galling is that North Korea can't feed its own people. It relies on food aid. It is a country whose borders aren't just to keep others out. It is home to one of the last brutal totalitarian regimes.