North Korea is the most serious challenge to the NPT, since it will be the role model for nations planning to break out of the NPT. In the Seventies, South Africa did breach the NPT but kept it a secret until it was ready to surrender the weapons and join the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state. Therefore, it is natural if the international community wonders how the sponsors of the NPT are going to meet this challenge and whether Pyongyang will become a role model for Tehran. There is bound to be speculation whether, if North Korea is allowed to get away with its defiance, Israel will consider its own preemptive action against the Iranian nuclear effort as they carried out against Iraq and Syria.

Presdent Obama, whether he pursues a new policy of direct engagement or continues the earlier policy of dealing with North Korea through China, will have to deal with a nuclear state. Given Pyongyang’s record it is totally unrealistic to expect them to give up their weapons. They are likely to use it as an instrument of blackmail just as Pakistanis use terrorism to milk the international community. So long as the nuclear powers want to maintain such weapons as the legitimate currency of power the North Koreans will have their way, with China (the original proliferator) as an ultimate shield as it happens to be for Pakistan too. It is going to be a difficult test for the US to act tough with North Korea when it is compelled not to offend China because of the economic meltdown. It has been noted that the Chinese statement on the second test is milder than the first.

... contd.