Instead, he said, increased economic sanctions against North Korea are likely the only path the Obama administration can pursue in response to any rocket test by Pyongyang, which would be in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
The path, tempo and face angle seemed to line up fine in this admittedly un-scientific test, but more importantly, when the device said a putt was bad, we generally missed it.
But Mr Lee said it would be "difficult to persuade the North regime to give up the nuclear path", and that North Korea's reference to a "high-level" test could indicate it planned to detonate more than one device.