Nukes of the North

A week ago North Korea tested a nuclear weapon that sent shock waves in the ground and around the world. South Korea responded by joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led effort to keep weapons of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands, which led North Korea to vow to no longer honor the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War. This week . . . well, the crisis seems to be getting less attention, possibly because of GM's bankruptcy being such a big story. But it's still an issue. South Koreans got a little scared recently when a North Korean patrol boat briefly crossed into South Korean waters. North Korea has put two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling (Lisa Ling's sister) on trial, accusing them of espionage.

No one seriously believes that North Korea will start another war, and the consensus is that they're merely rattling their sabers in a show of force. But many are concerned with the possibility of their weapons falling into the hands of the wrong people (I'll come right out and say it - terrorists!), and Kim Jong Il, currently reported to be ill, remains impenetrable.

Meanwhile, the North Korean population is starving, and if the country gets in an even deep rut, everything there could collapse. And with nuclear weapons on top of that? If the peninsula ever does become one country again, it won't be as peaceful and seamless a reunification as happened in Germany.

Or even Vietnam.