My old Mum, who was passionately opposed to nuclear anything, once reckoned that nuclear testing caused earthquakes ...

It's official, at least from the North Korean standpoint. The DPRK has long claimed to have nuclear weapons, but had never before performed a known test to prove its arsenal - until just a few hours ago. The US has threatened an unspecified, but "severe," response, and though the KCNA claims that it was a successful test of the country's deterrent capabilities, it also carefully mentioned that this test brought it one step closer to its ultimate goal of establishing a Great Socialist Nation, or in other words, a Korean peninsula run by Kim Jong-il.

So where do we stand on this issue? Is doing nothing (as we have been for several years now) the best option? Is our government's nebulous stance the way forward? The DPRK's leitmotif that is Kim Jong-il has always been described as a "maniacal" and "crazy" leader, but with our armed forces facing both troop and equipment shortages, can we actually lend any credibility to our arguments against a regime that is on the brink of collapse on its own accord? Do we even need to, considering that the level of corruption within their secret police is bound to be a harbinger of bad things for the Kim regime?