NK Not A Threat, But Not From Want Of Trying

[Annie]

Very much worth reading the links:

http://instapundit.com/archives/033220.php

October 13, 2006

NORTH KOREAN TEST LOOKS LIKE A NUKE:

The U.S. government has determined that one scientific test, among many conducted since North Korea's announced nuclear test, was consistent with a nuclear explosion, a senior administration official said Friday night. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cautioned that the administration has not made a definitive conclusion about the nature of the explosion.

"The betting is that this was an attempt at a nuclear test that failed," the official said. "We don't think they were trying to fake a nuclear test, but it may have been a nuclear fizzle _ an effort that failed."
​

For more on how they determine these things, see this article that I linked the other day.

UPDATE: Gerard Baker writes:

"It will be the first nuclear power to be headed by a crazed monomaniac who boasts of his commercial interest in shipping nuclear weapons to terrorist groups. . . . Out of a combination of fear, opportunism and cynicism, the world’s so-called powers have ridden a tiger for the past decade. Now the tiger has turned on them."​