Spring has finally sprung.
This weekend, North Korea sprung a long-range rocket into the air, and in response President Obama and the press sprung into action!
When we at USDemocrazy first saw this news we’ll admit: we were concerned. (Hey, it’s not everyday that a rogue state launches a missile!) However, within a few hours, we got the real story.
Apparently, North Korea’s big shot into the sky was a little disappointing (which we read here).
In fact, we weren’t the only ones who were a little iffy on the news; “North Korea missile test” gets over 18,000 news hits on Google, showing that pretty much everyone who works at a newspaper, radio station, website, blog, et cetera, wanted to figure out what on earth those unpredictable North Koreans were doing.
Our jitters were calmed after reading Joseph Cirincione’s commentary. He thinks we all need to just chill out. He very kindly sets out three very specific objectives that the North Koreans need to achieve in order to make a successful missile (Wait! Let’s hope they don’t read CNN.com!).
Naturally, there’s been a lot of criticism and talk from the international community, especially from President Obama, addressing the loose cannon that is North Korea (pun semi-intended).
An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council was called, but not much happened there. Why?!? you might ask… Well, let’s not forget that Russia and China sit on the Security Council. Those two feel less threatened by cranky rogue North Korea… They just want everyone to relax and sort this test out with level heads. Therefore, there’s been no official Security Council action on the matter.
As we know, President Obama is out galavanting around Europe, making important decisions and stuff… so everyone wanted to know what he thought about the subject.
This he made clear: He will not tread lightly on this subject. Even as the world overreacts, Obama plans to take charge and lay out a plan for dealing with nuclear proliferation.
One thing is clear, North Korea is not going away. (Thank you, thank you, it took us all day to come up with that conclusion!) The debate on what to do about the North Korea and their nuclear ambitions has re-emerged as a center stage news item.
Is the international community overreacting to the news of the missile test? Or are we not panicking enough? What are your thoughts?
[...] You might remember our posts on North Korea’s nuclear tests (but if not, read one here, and the other here). [...]