North Korea's state-run media reported Tuesday that Kim Jong-Il shed tears of regret during the country's controversial rocket launch because he could not use the launch funds to provide aid to his people, the AFP reported.

The country on Tuesday also released footage of the weekend launch, along with the first video of Kim since his reported stroke in August, according to South Korean media.

Kim "felt regret for not being able to spend more money on the people's livelihoods and was choked with sobs," AFP quoted ruling communist party paper Rodong Sinmun as saying.

"Chants of jubilation are reverberating throughout the country on the news that our satellite is beaming back the 'Song of General Kim Il-Sung' and the 'Song of General Kim Jong-Il,'" the paper said, according to AFP.

The North may have rushed its rocket launch in an effort to beat rival South Korea into space and suffered the same problem as in previous long-range missile tests, a security analyst said Tuesday.


Even as Pyongyang continued to claim it put a satellite into orbit, the rest of the world was analyzing what appeared to be largely another failure, although the distance that the rocket traveled was twice as far as anything the North previously sent up.

Meanwhile, U.N. Security Council diplomats continued squabbling over how — or even whether — to punish North Korea for what President Barack Obama and other world leaders called a provocative launch and a violation of sanctions imposed after the North's underground nuclear test in 2006.


"Although we still have some disagreements, we should continue to make our efforts to send a clear message," Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso told reporters in Tokyo. "We must swiftly send a clear message against the action (by North Korea), which ignored repeated warnings."

The North claims it is entitled to the peaceful use of space and says it plans to launch more satellites. The U.S., South Korea and Japan say the same technology applies to banned ballistic missiles.