North Korea

The Washington Post reports:

In a Test, a Reason to Talk
Bilateral Diplomacy Could Still Roll Back North Korea's Nuclear Arms Effort

By Selig S. Harrison
Tuesday, October 10, 2006; Page A21

"You have learned to live with other nuclear powers," said Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan, North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, leaning forward over the dinner table in Pyongyang. "So why not us? We really want to coexist with the United States peacefully, but you must learn to coexist with a North Korea that has nuclear weapons."

I'm not sure what the solution is to North Korea, but underground nuclear testing is the worst kind of deja vu I can imagine, and it seems to me that the governments of this planet, whose job it is to protect their citizens, need to increase their effectiveness bigtime.

What is driving North Korea to such extremes that they feel they need to test nuclear weapons?

And what can be done to allay their fears and create the dialogue necessary to have mutual trust and cooperation?

Or are their concerns really legitimate, and we are simply not being provided the facts by our news media?

But one thing is for sure. We need to grapple with this and handle it effectively NOW, and not wait till testing turns to deployment.