Knowing that any conflict with the North K's would be a high-order disaster, the 1600 Crew has studiously avoided any conflict. Sure, Chickenhawk DoD court jester John "stop the recount" Bolton has talked tough, but everyone just patted him on the head and sent him away. Just like you do to that annoying kid at a big family dinner...

So, tough cowboy rhetoric, a political-appointee 1600 Crew moron in charge of policy and what's the yield?

That may be the operative question...seems the North K's want to find out too. They are formally announcing their "nuclear" status, and planning operational tests of their weapons. Hmmmm, hey Auntie Donnie, guess they have more than "one or two", eh?

North Korea startled a six-nation conference on East Asian security by announcing its intentions to formally declare its possession of nuclear weapons and to carry out a nuclear test, a Bush administration official said Thursday.
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James Kelly, the chief U.S. delegate, demanded that North Korea engage in the verifiable and permanent dismantling of its nuclear weapons programs, in return for which the United States would provide security guarantees and economic benefits.
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Tensions and hostilities have been escalating since October, when Pyongyang acknowledged — to Kelly himself — that it had restarted a nuclear program it supposedly shut down. The United States has demanded that North Korea stop the program immediately, while the impoverished North has refused to budge without guarantees of security and economic aid.

If the North K's are now resorting to nuclear blackmail to get economic aid, what's the next step an invasion of the South?

Wait, I have it...let's see if Pyongyang will pledge peacekeepers for Iraq in return for oil and food...gee, I'll bet they bite before say, the French.