Nork Nukes

North Korea claims that it has successfully tested a nuclear weapon.

The question of the day is whether China and South Korea will now step forward to help destroy the beast that they helped to create and sustain. By "destroy," I don't mean to imply that a military confrontation is desirable or even necessary. A coordinated strategy to choke off funds and supplies to the North Koreans could very well succeed in bringing about the regime's collapse, but only if is supported wholeheartedly by the two nations with the most influence in the region - China and South Korea.

This is a very difficult diplomatic game for the U.S., but I think that the Bush administration has played it as well as it could have. The easy option would have been to fall in line behind the policies of previous administrations by simply trying to buy off (or appease) Little Dictator Kim Jong-Il. President Bush, though, has quite rightly put that option off the table, for the simple reason that it is absolutely unfathomable that the U.S. would act to prop up such a dangerous and untrustworthy tyrant.

The Bush administration's policy of multilateral, six-party negotiations with North Korea was designed to force its neighbors to step up to the plate and take some of the responsibility for dealing with Kim Jong-Il's repeated provocations. Until now, only the U.S. and Japan have shown a determined willingness to take the actions required to bring about a change in regime. Now that the North Koreans have demonstrated their nuclear capabilities in such a blatantly hostile fashion, we can only hope that China and South Korea will come to their senses and help put an end to this madness once and for all.