Kim Jong Il has expressed "great satisfaction" that North Korea succeeded Sunday in launching a satellite into orbit. The North Korean leader's satisfaction, as state news media explained it Monday, was in no way diminished by a worldwide expert consensus, based on tracking data, that the satellite did not go into orbit but plopped into the Pacific, where it apparently sank. [...] In the months-long run-up to the rocket launch, the country's most important domestic problem -- a chronic shortage of food -- was not glossed over by official media. Indeed, North Koreans were encouraged to collect their own feces as fertilizer for state farms and to go to the countryside to help with crop preparation. Under Kim, the government has not been able to feed its people. As many as a million people died of famine in the 1990s. Malnutrition and stunting are still widespread, according to the U.N. World Food Program, which estimates that about 37 percent of the population will require food assistance this year.