Failure to launch.(NORTH KOREA)

WHEN it became clear that the Taepodong-2 missile North Korea test-launched early on July 4 had broken up less than a minute into flight and plunged into the Sea of Japan, many Americans felt a sense of relief. After all, the missile--belonging to a class thought capable of reaching the U.S. mainland--had failed, and Kim Jong Il had been embarrassed before the eyes of the world. But an embarrassed menace is a menace nonetheless. Despite the test's outcome, Kim's regime is a greater threat now than it has ever been.

Responding successfully to that threat will require, first, a recognition that Kim almost surely cannot be negotiated out of his nuclear program. President Bush has been right to pursue multilateral talks with Pyongyang rather than acquiesce in the bilateral negotiations Kim desires: Direct talks would be a concession to North Korean pressure and strengthen Kim's position. But the six-party talks--involving, in addition to North Korea and the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Russia, and China--have never brought Kim an inch closer to forswearing his nuclear aims, and in any case have been suspended since September. Resuming them now isn't likely to do much good. Kim knows that North Korea's economy, as well as his power, depends on the combination of selling arms to rogue states and extorting aid from alarmed neighbors. He will not defang himself, for this would imperil his survival.

The recently passed U.N. resolution banning member states from selling components of missiles and nuclear weapons to North Korea was better than no response at all. But not much better. Russia and China successfully blocked any threat of economic sanctions or other punitive measures. In this, they were supported by South Korea, which plays the role of U.S. ally on Mondays, Wednesdays, and alternate Fridays. The U.S. should do everything it can ...