TOKYO, April 9 – Japan on Friday extended economic sanctions on North Korea by a year to punish it for what was widely seen as a long-range missile test, but softened its drive for a United Nations resolution to chastise Pyongyang.

North Korea is likely to escape any serious fallout from the Sunday launch, analysts and diplomats have said, while its leader Kim Jong-il has been able to win enormous political gain at home for a defiant act that helped tighten his iron grip on power.