Just in time for the US election, North Korea announces a nuke test.
"What has this Republican Congress, what has this President done to make us save?"
Cand. Whoever – (D.Anywhere)
Good question …
The NoKo’s did not give any date, so this may just be a sham. They have never done a test before and to announce one that eventually could fissle is quite dangerous. The possible loss of determent could actually invite some unforeseen action.
Now Bolton, in his last days as U.S. ambassador to the UN, will huff and puff, but the Chinese will not be impressed. If this has not been coordinated with them beforehand, they will be a bit pissed with Kim Jong Il, but grin at the effects the announcement will have elsewhere.
The Japanese will go ape-shit. Their right wing new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might even want to show that he is a real man and start something dumb. He should hold his breath and consult some history books. It was Japan that recently occupied Korea for some 35 years, not the other way around.
As for the South Koreans, I guess they will not care too much. They have only one fear: an uncontrolled breakdown of the North Korean dictatorship leaving them with the huge bill for cleaning up the mess.
To the U.S. people nukes in NoKo are of course no danger at all. Even if those guys would have the means to deliver them, which they have not, they know the suicidal danger of a first strike.
But a nuke test in NoKo complicates the U.S. calculation for any action against Iran. There has been some cooperation between those two countries on missile technology. Could the cooperation widen to something else, if an attack on Iran were imminant? And how would a nuklear North Korea play a role in the long term plans against China?
Some interesting question, but only the very first one is really of interests to the paranoid U.S. electorate.
If the Dems play this one smart, it could be a big point for them on the national security merit scoreboard. But then …