Enemy of every State

Sometimes, ya just gotta wonder.

North Korea, that bastion of absolute dictatorship, is under the impression that it has the right to scare the tripe out of the region by exploding a nuclear device. As a sovereign nation, you understand; a caring, sharing, have-to-defend-ourselves-against-everybody country.

Japan is, understandably, nervous; and if they are nervous, it raises the possiblity of Japan acquiring nuclear technology, which will make China extremely nervous. If China gets nervous, well, that will make the U.S. nervous, and so on...

Worse, that dickhead Kim Jong-il has embarrassed long time supporter China with this test.

Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, called the North Korean Ambassador in and laid it on the line:

"I said it was one thing to be offensive to the United States and Britain and Australia and their allies, but it's another thing to treat the Chinese, who have been such stalwart supporters of North Korea for such a long time, in this way," he said.

"North Korea have humiliated the Chinese government.

"The Chinese government had been working intensely to try to stop this testing taking place."

Mr Downer said China provided 80 per cent of North Korea's humanitarian aid and half of the reclusive Stalinist state's trade was with China.

"The North Koreans have treated China extremely shabbily in this particular situation," Mr Downer said.

Sanctions, in this case, will not work unless China sanctions NK. And given that the United Nations has turned into Pussyville, I doubt sanctions will be enacted anyway.

In reply to the U.S.'s proposed sanctions, the NK Ambassador to the UN Pak Gil Yon told reporters that "the test would help "the maintenance and guarantee of peace and security in the (Korean) peninsula and the region."

Instead of pursuing "reckless" statements or resolutions, Pak said the Security Council should congratulate North Korea's scientists and researchers. And if you believe that those scientists managed to create a nuclear bomb all by themselves, then I know of a large sand pit in the middle of Australia you might want to buy.

This all sounds like sabre-rattling by the head idiot in North Korea, except for a few minor historical incidents:

The discovery of four incursion tunnels under the DMZ large enough for mass troop movements into South Korea;

It launched seven missiles into the Sea of Japan in July 2006;
In August, the regime announced that the 1953 Armistice was 'null and void', and last Saturday, South Korean troops fired warning shots at North Korean troops who had crossed a boundary in the Demilitarized Zone separating the two country's forces. If that doesn't give you the shivers, this should.

While any information coming out of the north should be taken with a grain of salt or six, it should be remembered that inside North Korea the populace believe the propaganda as gospel.

What all this suggests is that North Korea is preparing to fulfil its dream and goal of reunification with South Korea, no matter what the cost.

The questions remain: will North Korea demand South Korea rejoin it under threat of nuclear action? And if the South refuses, will the North use its arsenal anyway to punish its southern neighbour? With a paranoic madman in charge and in command of the world's fifth largest standing army, who the hell knows?