Madman With Bomb

"Her-o-o-o-o!"
It's scary but true. While the world was busy drafting up how to powerfully word a censure to North Korea, trying to manipulate it into not going forwards with its plans for a Nuclear test, they go and do it. Just like that.

The test came just two days after the country was warned by the United Nations Security Council that the action could lead to severe consequences.

American officials cautioned that they had not yet received any confirmation that the test had occurred. The United States Geological Survey said it had detected a tremor of 4.2 magnitude on the Korean Peninsula.

China called the test a “flagrant and brazen” violation of international opinion and said it “firmly opposes” North Korea’s conduct.

Senior Bush administration officials said that they had little reason to doubt the announcement, and warned that the test would usher in a new era of confrontation with the isolated and unpredictable country run by President Kim Jong-il.

Early Monday morning, even before the test was confirmed, Bush administration officials were holding conference calls to discuss ways to further cut off a country that is already subject to sanctions, and hard-liners said the moment had arrived for neighboring countries, especially China and Russia, to cut off the trade and oil supplies that have been Mr. Kim’s lifeline.

In South Korea, the country that fought a bloody war with the North for three years and has lived with an uneasy truce and failed efforts at reconciliation for more than half a century, officials said they believed that an explosion occurred around 10:36 p.m. New York time — 11:36 a.m. Monday in Korea.

They identified the source of the explosion as North Hamgyong Province, roughly the area where American spy satellites have been focused for several years on a variety of suspected underground test sites.

That was less than an hour after North Korean officials had called their counterparts in China and warned them that a test was just minutes away. The Chinese, who have been North Korea’s main ally for 60 years but have grown increasingly frustrated by the its defiance of Beijing, sent an emergency alert to Washington through the United States Embassy in Beijing. Within minutes, President Bush was notified, shortly after 10 p.m., by his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, that a test was imminent.

North Korea’s decision to conduct the test demonstrated what the world has suspected for years: the country has joined India, Pakistan and Israel as one of the world’s “undeclared” nuclear powers. India and Pakistan conducted tests in 1998; Israel has never acknowledged conducting a test or possessing a weapon. But by actually setting off a weapon, if that is proven, the North has chosen to end years of carefully crafted and diplomatically useful ambiguity about its abilities.

Oh crud. These crazies have just gone and shot down any diplomatic way of coming back from the grey zone they've engineeered for years; where China and South Korea could say "look, they might not be doing it all right?"
Well, excuse me but look whose dog has done the duty on the carpet. The North Koreans have simply looked at the nations telling them not to do it and said, "How're you gonna stop us? Watch this!"

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the underground test was performed successfully "with indigenous wisdom and technology 100%," and that no radiation leaked from that test site.

KCNA said in a statement: "It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the (Korean People's Army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defence capability. It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."

So what the hell is this going to do to the world? Newly minted Japanese PM Shinzo Abe looks a total dork as the news hits him as he arrives in Seoul to discuss what to do about North Korea. While China and South Korea have spent years stalling on behalf of Pyongyang, their patience has been repaid in full with a flipping of the bird like we haven't seen since, well, Saddam called down "The Mother of All Battles". You sort of wonder if they like looking like such putzes in the international stage. And what about Russia? Why were those guys selling the North Koreans the means to concentrate Uranium?

You can bet our mother's underpants that Iran is busily beavering away with its own plans to stall the world and steam ahead with its nucelar weapons programme. This is even worse news than the Yankees getting bundled out of the playoffs.
UPDATE ON THE LAST QUIP: I'm not the only one thinking this...

41. Guapo Posted: October 09, 2006 at 03:46 PM (#2204965)
This is fantastic, I hope they are able to get the ball rolling with the completely unfair piling on.

Oct. 9, PYONGYANG- North Korean leader Kim Il Jong today announced that he had ordered North Korea's detonation of a nuclear weapon to indicate his displeasure with Alex Rodriguez' performance in the ALDS. According to a statement from the Korean Central News Agency, "Upon reading international news reports detailing Alex Rodriguez' failings in the clutch, Supreme Commander Kim Il Jong desired to throw a chair, the traditional means of expressing unhappiness at wretched play by a baseball player. However, no chairs were available to the Dear Leader, due to economic sanctions imposed by U.S. imperalist criminals upon the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. As a result, the Supreme Commander ordered the explosion of a nuclear bomb instead. Kim Il Jong expressed his approval with regard to reports that the perfidious hooligan Joe Torre would be fired and announced that he would be calling into "Mike and the Mad Dog" later today with several suggestions for potential trades involving Rodriguez."

Heh. The world still turns. :)