Word: nuclearization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...what we know about rogue states and their nuclear bombs that should scare us - it's what we don't know. North Korea's test of a nuclear device on Monday may not have come as a surprise to Washington, but only in the sense that Washington knew Pyongyang was defiant enough to set one off. Beyond that, truth be told, Washington is completely in the dark about North Korea's intentions. It can only expect the worse and hope for the better. (See pictures of North Korea...
...give you an idea just how impenetrable the military is, North Korea is the only country in the world that can execute large deployments while maintaining radio silence. If it can enforce discipline like that on the military, it's not surprising that it has no problem keeping its nuclear secrets. (See TIME's photo-essay "North Korea Goes to the Polls...
...annoying China, its only ostensible ally in the world, what must Beijing be thinking now? For most of the past six years, Beijing has been the host and chief promoter of the so-called six-party talks. Their explicit goal: to get North Korea to give up its nuclear-weapons program. When the North launched another long-range ballistic missile in early April, Beijing helped promote the fig leaf at the U.N. Security Council that the rocket carried a communications satellite and thus might not be a direct violation of two U.N. resolutions calling on Pyongyang to cease its nuclear...
...question everyone from President Barack Obama on down is now asking - What does Beijing want from Kim Jong Il? - isn't necessarily the right one. Beijing has said in no uncertain terms that a nuclear North Korea is contrary to the "core interests" of the People's Republic of China. The more important questions are (and have been all along): How much leverage does Beijing actually have over the North to begin with, and how much political will do the Chinese have to defend their "core interests" when it comes to North Korea...
...accepting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's invitation, issued this week, to return to the six-party talks. South Korean President Lee Myung Bak in Seoul flatly told President Obama earlier this week not to go back to simply trying to bribe the North out of its nuclear program. Japan is more or less in the same place. China, which could inflict considerable economic pain on Pyongyang by cutting off trade and fuel shipments, now must decide whether or not, in truth, a nuclear North is against its "core interests." And it must do so with the world very...