North Korea has undertaken what the world calls two provocative acts during the past 60 days. The first was their launch of a short-range ballistic missile during early April; the second was their successful underground test of a nuclear bomb, with an estimated yield of 20 kilotons, larger than the bomb that exploded over Hiroshima.
Why the inscrutable North Koreans have undertaken these acts at this time is know today only to Kim Jong-Il and, in the future, to historians. Suffice it to say that the sequence of negotiation, acceptance of treaty terms, violation of treaty terms, and belligerent acts is a pattern that began twenty years ago and continues today. Republicans and Democrats both blame each other; with Democrats in control, Republicans claim that the North Koreans are exploiting American political weakness. When Republicans were in control, Democrats claimed that American belligerence was provoking the North Koreans. Both are right, and wrong.
The North Koreans march to their own drummer. They want respect on the world stage but, because they are the last Stalinist dictatorship on earth, their leader can make dangerous decisions without consequence.
That these acts were tests of the new Obama Administration there can be no doubt. The United States has the wherewithall to stop them. Will we negotiate or will we act?
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