North Korea’s announcement of its second nuclear test in three years is the only the latest setback for the view that North Korea could be appeased into the loving arms of the fictitious oxymoron some call the “international community.” An essential element of this view is the belief that China is acting in good faith to help America contain North Korea’s nuclear contagion. A closer examination ought to call that assumption into question. The reality is that China has shielded North Korea from the consequences of its provocations and even helped North Korea to acquire and proliferate nuclear and missile technology.
The test itself appears to have been a technical success. Seismic reports from the U.S. Geological Survey tell us that the blast created a magnitude 4.7 earthquake at coordinates matching those of the Mount Mohyang test site, the same place where North Korea tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006, directly adjacent to the vast gulag of Camp 16, and not far from where it launched a long-range missile in April.
