wre,
Which government are we talking about here, the one that spends billions on weapons while their people starve it might be a very true statement to make about the U.S.A. but they are our allies mate, settle down.

1. The UN cannot launch a damn war against anyone - the UN by it's very definition is about keeping peace and they don't have an army. So how many nations want to send soldiers to blow up Korea? I would suggest none after the debacle of Iraq and the horror of Afghanistan and now Lebanon.
2. The US and UK have spread tonnes of depleted uranium all over the middle east and Balkans in the name of "interventions" and this wretched stuff will kill and maim for generations to come.
3. Lebanon has been blanketed with over 1 million US supplied cluster bombs thanks to a temper tantrum by Israel - that is the equivalent of ethnic cleansing.
4. It is reported today that the Israeli's trialed a new weapon in Gaza strip that takes off legs and burns and does not stop burning people.
5. Now we get to starving populations - 5.5 million Afghans while we fiddle, 2 million Palestinians while we lead the cheer squad, 50% of our nearest neighbours in East Timor are hungry, millions of Africans while we spend weapons on new bombs and illegally invade other nations.

Let's say North Korea make one bomb. The US used two. We sell most of the world's uranium.

I am sick to death of the self-righteous whining of men who just love to kill.

I's impressed by the moderate and experienced tone of your article. A useful supplement to http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5001 which also highlighted China's central position.

Its too easy to become alarmed over this issue rather than see it as a continuation of a weapons development process which has gone on for around 30 years.

The problem with North Korea for all powers (eg. US, Russia and China) has been "how can you handle it and tell it what to do?"

North Korea is so recalcitrant and driven by an odd dynasty (a father and son team from its inception in the 1940s) that creative strategies are needed to deal with it.

Now that North Korea allegedly has several nuclear weapons not even the nuclear threat is effective against it due to it possibly retaliating.

Probably pressure from Russia and China for North Korea to persuade North Korea to conform is the best way to go. The approach may be carrot and a little stick.

This should be more effective then the election linked posturing of Bush and the neocons.

I'd agree with the content of the article. China is the key to this issue.

I sincerely doubt naval blockades would put any pressure on the North Korean regime. As I understand it, they receive little by way of imports by sea.

Direct military intervention isn't going to happen any time soon. It would take extraordinary measures by the North Koreans to trigger those kind of reactions. That is probably why they have done this.

China on the other hand, holds the keys here. What's more, they haven't instituted the diplomatic exclusion that has been implemented by most elements of the West.

China has the incentives, the lines of communication and I would argue, the resolve, to handle this situation, at least, as much as it can be handled.

Whether or not they decide this is in their interest is another question. I would say at this point that China will probably back whatever marginally effective sanctions program the US comes up with, though I'm less optimistic about them taking matters further.

After reading the A Confucian Daoist Millennium by Reg Little, I am sure China will not respond.

I think it is quite a baffling problem.

North Korea is kept alive by China. If the Chinese cut food and energy supplies, they'll be flooded with refugees.

Even without a bomb the military is not an option, Seoul can be flattened by conventional artillery, it is that close to the border.

What is worse if we apply sanctions, selling bombs to terrorists may be the only way to hard currency for the regime.

Let's just have a look at why they got a bomb. The US steadfastly refused to offer a peace treaty to the North Koreans even though praatically we are at peace. North Korea has been consistently named as a member of the axis of evil. After the Iraq war it is hardly surprising that the remnants of the axis of evil are searching for security in wmds.

What if we offered a Cuba style deal? We keep our hands off if they give up their weapons. "Appeasement?!, remember Munich", I hear you say. I don't think North Korea has designs on their neighbours. In their new found security they may be able to get the economy going and perhaps reunite with Sth Korea. Libya got normal relations in exchange for ending their wmd program.

What can China do? Send in the army? Risk getting nuked? End up with a border with a western country? Both armies haven't been in a war for decades so it is a very high risk option. Apply sanctions and get flooded by refugees? Worse have them sell weapons to terrorists.?

If Nth Korea wanted to be agressive they could have flattened Seoul decades ago. I don't think they would do a first strike. They do have a record of counterfeiting money, selling drugs and selling bombs would fit in with that record. We just got to bite the bullet, swallow our pride and remove the reason for them to sell nukes.