North Korea Goes Nuculer . . . er, Nuclear

The cats are insisting that I blog about the news that North Korea apparently has detonated a nuclear device, albeit a puny one.

I was going to let this disturbing news pass because there's so much more going on out there in the Big Bad World, but Kiko and Kimba have an awful lot of sway, so here goes:

I am only slightly more disturbed that North Korea has joined the nuclear club than the fact that Iran probably will do so shortly and Pakistan, a hugely unstable country, has had the bomb for many years.

It is time for Asian nations to take the lead in fashioning a diplomatic response to Pyongyang's provocation.

Japan is hopeless. South Korea is only slightly less so. That leaves China.

China is striving to be world class in economics, athletics and culture. Let's hope that Beijing seizes the initiative here (it probably won't) and doesn't defer to the U.S., which did call North Korea's bluff ("detonate a device and just see what happens, pal") and now has to stand up to a tinhorn dictator, albeit a dangerously wacked out one.

Alas, the U.S. is in no position to follow through on its bluster and this situation is much too dicey for the kind of half-assed-ness the White House also has employed with Iran and the recent Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

The bottom line: Military action is out of the question.

End of sermon.