Once again the tyrants of Pyongyang have begun rattling their nuclear tipped sabers, this time threatening to test a nuclear weapon. Ostensibly, the North Koreans argue that such tests are needed to counter the threat posed by the United States, a line frequently repeated by tyrants seeking to distract followers and allies from the true danger (Hugo Chavez being a prime example).

For the most part the world has reacted with condemnation, even the typically reserved South Korea has taken a hard line in opposition to any such tests, arguing nuclear weapons will not be permitted on the Korean Peninsula. The statement, however, is foolish,. However, considering the fact that most everyone acknowledges, including Kim Jong Il, that North Korea already possess a nuclear weapons capability. China is the one exception with regard to the international response, China has called for calm and further diplomacy. Perhaps the same type of diplomacy which led to the North’s clandestine nuclear program in the first place?

So why is North Korea’s Kim making such threats now? For the same reason the North began testing ballistic missiles in the Sea of Japan earlier this year, to refocus international attention on the Korean Peninsula and away from Iran. Their efforts, however, will fail. All parties acknowledge that North Korea possesses such weapons and most no doubt recognize the inescapable fact that the North isn’t likely to give up these weapons. Thus further diplomacy and international incentive packages aren’t likely to be offered to Pyongyang as they have been offered to Tehran. Iran, does not yet have a nuclear weapons capability (or so we have been told, the truth is probably somewhat different) and thus the international community is bending over backwards to appease the Mullahs of Tehran in a futile effort to forestall an Iran nuclear program.

The North, desiring such an economic windfall, would have been wise to string the west along as the Iranians are doing, above all they shouldn’t have acknowledged publicly that they already possessed the bomb. Form this point onward, diplomacy is gradually shifting away from tired efforts to compel the North to abandon its nuclear weapons and are now shifting toward containment and efforts to respond to a North Korean nuclear threat, witness the increasingly bellicose attitude of the Japanese.

If North Korea does move forward with these tests, the US should do nothing, after all nations like South Korea don’t want American help in the first place. The US should sit back and watch as the world finally comes to the realization of how dangerous the North Korean regime truly is. Japan will likely move forward with its efforts to remilitarize and perhaps even the South Koreans will take their collective heads out of the sand.

But then again what does a nuclear test truly mean? Its not as if it we don’t already know that the North has such a capability, such a test already confirms that which is common knowledge: that North Korea is a rogue, unstable, nuclear regime.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/10/04/afx3065631.html