I think china has been criticized over the incident since they didn't stop NK from conducting the test. They did agree to condemn the test but that's after the fact. So if china can't do as much about this as we thought, then it's really going to take a global effort to bring NK's nuke program to a standstill. Maybe fif the USA and China team up for this one tihngs can work out.

This isn't WW3, i thought the israel-lebanon conflict in the summer was closer to that. Hell, the current path with Iran's nuclear program is becoming less risky. Once Russia is about to invade the caucasus, then maybe we'll be at defcon 2, maybe.

If they dare set another one tomorrow before the UN Secuity council votes they deserve to be expelled out of the UN then they are a rouge state.

A little back story before I truly begin.

For the last two months in political science our class has been on again off again divided into groups to do reports on globalization and its effects on specific parts of the world, I was placed in the East Asia group and for my part of the presentation I chose the political impacts of globalization and the possible Nuclear Arms race in the region as part of that, all prior to the revelations this week. Now my report has been made incredibly easy because all of the sudden there has been an explosion in the availability of information related to this subject. So, my conclusions based on information I found prior to and following North Korea's Nuclear test.

This was an incredibly stupid decision by Kim Jong-Il, now even his closest ally China has condemned his actions, even calling Kim "brazen" at one point, their harshest criticism yet. However, Chinese fear absolute globalization as an attempt at a U.S. hegemony means that they will almost assuredly block attempts by Japan to pass Chapter 7 UN sanctions against North Korea. Japan is threatening to deny North Korean ships rights to dock in Japanese ports and travel through Japanese territorial waters, but most devastating to Kim is the loss of cash flow into his nation from South Korea and China while both nations have also stopped sending fuel to North Korea. The United States, distracted by our involvement in the Middle East will most likely take a less active role in this, however that is a relative term, if Japan and South Korea pushed hard enough the US could lead a blockade against North Korea, which would put further strain on the North's economy and push Kim's regime even closer to collapse. So to re-iterate my point, this was a massive mistake on the part of the north, now even their two biggest "allies" (China and to a far smaller extent Russia.) are unifying against Kim's government. Were it not for the North's position as a buffer between China and capitalism Kim would probably have been taken care of one way or another a long time ago.