North Korean Nuke Tests & Reluctancy

According to an ABC News report, North Korea appears to be preparing for another nuclear test.

As things currently stand, it's not a matter of if North Korea will perform another test, but when. What are we going to do about it?

ABC:

North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test, according to U.S. defense officials.

"We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," a senior U.S. defense official told ABC News.

The official cautions that the intelligence is inconclusive as to whether North Korea will actually go ahead with another test but said the preparations are similar to the steps taken by Pyongyang before it shocked the world by conducting its first nuclear test last Oct. 9.

The real question is what we and the rest of the responsible world are going to do about it. And our record is nauseating. Hold on to that barf bag, because the Bush adminstration's plan, according to Tony Snow, won't help:

"...let me make clear to the people of North Korea and the entire world, not only do we not want North Korea to 'kneel down,' what we're trying to do is offer them a better deal — better economy, more security, better relations with their neighbors, integration into the global community as opposed to isolation"

The Bush administration aims to potentially give all of the above to North Korea on the condition of the dismantling of their nuclear weapons and programs, but realistically to do all that good stuff, we would need to force them into isolation.

Shockingly, North Korea is preparing for yet another nuclear test while under the UN imposed sanctions. These fluffy sanctions are nothing without cutting off Kim Jong il's lifeline: humanitarian aid. But we and the rest of the world are reluctant to do that. It wouldn't be compassionate. But it is, the sooner Kim loses this lifeline the sooner we can end the brutal way of life for all North Koreans.

How will true isolation work? The sooner North Korea becomes more a thorn in the side of China than the U.S., the better. Isolation would either send millions of North Koreans into China, or force China to shoulder the burden of supporting their lunatic neighbor. Checkmate.

When the status quo becomes a nonoption, China will help.