Brinksmanship is back

I guess North Korean leaders were tired of all of Iran receiving all of the U.S. pre-war attention, because they got uppity today.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry announced the country will withdraw from disarmament talks and continue to expand its nuclear program. This development is troubling for several reasons, most notably because the CIA has admitted that North Korea has ballistic missiles that can reach the West Coast and because it's the country's first public admission that it has nukes.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned today that the North Koreans risk "deepening their isolation" if they don't return to six-party disarmament talks with the United States, China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. What she didn't do, unlike with Iran, was issue a thinly veiled threat of a U.S. invasion. Instead, Rice asserted, "The North Koreans have been told by the president of the United States that the United States has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea."

Three things come to mind when I hear that. First, I really hate the passive voice. Second, I can't help but wonder whether the Bush administration really knows what to do with a nuclear-armed North Korea at this point. Third, I'm not what really can be done with North Korea right now.

I suspect Kim Jong-Il and crew stepped up the rhetoric today in hopes that the West will offer more economic assistance and tone down criticism of North Korea's corrupt, repressive, deplorable dictatorship. I also suspect the West will have none of that.

North Koreans almost certainly aren't stupid enough to ensure their annihilation by launching a nuclear missile at the United States. Still, I'm glad I don't live by the Pacific Ocean.