"A Declaration of War"

Taken in again. The United States administration, similar to those before the current one, occasionally demonstrates an appealing though tendentious naivete in opting to place trust in the promises of co-operation offered time and again by regimes that are proven to be expressly untrusworthy. So it is with Iran and so it is with North Korea. Both of those states conspire continually to foil all attempts by the United Nations and the U.S. to honour their global and treaty commitments.

And each of them from time to time hold out the hope of an olive branch. The result of which is that both the United Nations and the United States as well as other members of the Security Council believe that they can at last trust the good word of Iran and North Korea. Both of which simply play for time, revelling in their view of how simple-minded and easy to forestall the two sources of commitment to international peace are, how vulnerable to manipulation.

Each time that the United States seeks to mollify North Korea with promises of financial aid or with the provision of emergency assets like food for a starving nation of impoverished people whose government lavishes funding on nuclear arms, the agreement inevitably falls through when North Korea's Kim family tires of its submissive role and resumes the kind of pugnacious behaviour they feel is more suited to them.

This time the pledge from Pyongyang to suspend nuclear and missile tests and uranium enrichment in return for food aid, lasted all of several weeks before the regime released an announcement that is is preparing to launch a high-powered missile in celebration of the centenary of the birth of their founder. President Barack Obama has personally warned Kim Jong-un not to proceed with that breach of United Nations sanctions.

"Bad behaviour will not be rewarded. We have indicated to them very directly, because this was part of discussions that had taken place among negotiators, that it would be difficult to move forward with that package. That is just one example of the kinds of consequence that will take place", referring to the delivery of 240,000 tons of food that will now be suspended if Pyongyang proceeds with its plans to deploy that celebratory missile and purported satellite.

"I will also note that every time North Korea has violated an international resolution, the Security Council resolution, it has resulted in further isolation, tightening of sanctions, stronger enforcement. I suspect that will happen this time as well." And one suspects that this will have little impact on the imperturbable impression of entitlement emanating from North Korea; that no world body let alone superpower has the right and the means to halt their plans.

At the time that the agreement was made with North Korea to suspend nuclear and missile tests in exchange for food aid, the United States triumphantly considered it yet another breakthrough. but there have been many of those same types of 'breakthroughs', each of which has had an impression of having succeeded in taming the wild ambitions of the country, but lasting a very short time before the regime simply reverted to doing what it had pledged itself not to.

A scheduled 53-nation Nuclear Security Summit opened in South Korea this week. North Korea, not invited to attend, nor will there be delegates present from Iran or Syria, has given due warning that should any reference to its nuclear program be made in any communiques emanating from the summit, the regime would regard that as "a declaration of war". Accordingly, China has urged that the summit not stray into the topic of North Korea in its discussions, which given its purpose, would be difficult indeed.

Japan, feeling threatened by the prospect of a powerful missile being shot in the direction of its territory, is considering taking preventive action and launching its own missiles, to shoot down the North Korean missile, should it stray, as anticipated, into Japanese territory. That too has been declared by North Korea, as a prospective declaration of war.