N. Korea tries to 'up the ante'

This isn't the first time Kim Jong Il's regime has told the world that it has nuclear weapons, which might explain why the announcement was largely ignored by the US media.

In a statement published by the official KCNA news agency last October the Foreign Ministry said: "(North Korea) successfully finished the reprocessing of some 8,000 spent fuel rods." US Secretary of State Colin Powell said then that the US has no evidence North Korea has reprocessed the spent nuclear fuel rods. "This is the third time they have told us they have just finished reprocessing the rods. We have no evidence to confirm that."

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An editorial in the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo, however, says the "international community's 'red line' is being directly threatened" this time. The editorial also criticizes the reaction of the South Korean government.

What is even more frustrating is our government. This time, too, our government said, 'North Korea has been claiming a nuclear deterrent to confront US hostile policies, and this latest statement doesn't represent a development from that.' The government did not express any feelings of resistance or concern; on the contrary, it gave one the feeling that it shared with North Korea its view of US North Korea policy as 'hostile policy.' This has lead the international community to believe South Korea doesn't consider North Korean nuclear weapons a threat.

The Age of Australia reports that China is playing down North Korea's latest claim as it tries to keep alive the six-party talks between North Korea, the US, China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia. China's foreign minister blamed the impasse in the six-nation talks on the " mutual lack of trust" between the US and North Korea.

The Associated Press reports that the Bush administration " responded calmly" to Pyongyang's announcement. "We take all their claims seriously," said US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

US Under Secretary of State John Bolton said North Korea was waiting to see whether a change of president would bring a new policy from the US. "I think it is clear the North Koreans took a look at the calendar and decided it was not in their interests to have a fourth round before our elections," Bolton, Washington's top official on proliferation, told a conference at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington.

'At some point, you have to ask the question, if the North Koreans are not willing to engage in talks seriously, what the future of the talks is,' Bolton said. 'If ... the Koreans continue to stonewall, then I think the Security Council is the next logical step.'

An editorial in The Korea Times suggests North Korea's attempt to "up the ante" will not be as effective as it has been in the past.

What the latest series of Pyongyang's saber-rattling add up to seems to be quite clear: they are upping the ante to the full for the next negotiations, which will likely be resumed after the US presidential election in November. Pyongyang used to resort to similar displays of military prowess as a means of breaking through its diplomatic isolation, economic difficulties and domestic instability in the past. But the time has long past for the North to drop the strategy that has outlived its efficacy to all appearances. ... Diplomatic brinkmanship or threats of power work only when the more powerful side uses them.

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• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Matthew Clark.