Last month, a rocket launched by North Korea soared to an altitude five times higher than the International Space Station. A Reuters analysis of publicly available data shows how that may have brought leader Kim Jong Un closer to his goal of producing a missile to hit the United States. "To avoid firing long-range missiles into or over Japan, the North Koreans have been launching them nearly straight up instead," said Joshua Pollack, editor of the Washington-based Nonproliferation Review.