Y'know if I didn't know better

I could almost suspect that North Korea's rocket was deliberately shot down.

Yeah I know, strictly 007 stuff to be sure.

But if you wanted North Korea to "lose face" publicly and privately communicate a pointed message as to the limits of regional and international tolerance, then the suspicion itself makes rough policy sense.

Of course the problem then becomes what does Pyongyang do in retaliation for such a provocative act?
Assuming of course they even realize their rocket was intercepted & destroyed.

How does all that impact our allies and trading partners in the region?
Test another A-Bomb maybe, make some direct provocation against South Korea?

The imponderables piles up pretty quickly under this scenario....
Thus Humble Elias comes back to the comfort and safety of Occam's Razor which pretty much dictates that North Korea has had problems with these high tech stunts before, thus the damn rocket probably few apart due to shabby workmanship.