By Andrew L. Jaffee

North Korea test-fired a long-range missile and five shorter-range rockets on July 4, 2006. It tested a nuclear bomb in October 2006. Today, Kim Jong-il’s workers’ paradise “fired several short-range guided missiles into the sea that separates it from Japan.” The North has a 1.1-million-man army, the fourth-largest in the world. This is downright alarming, unless you’re some kind of politically-correct sissy “analyst:”

…Analysts and media reports said the North’s test was in response to South Korea’s launch of its first destroyer equipped with high-tech Aegis radar technology on Friday. South Korea is now one of only five countries armed with the technology, which will make it easier to track and shoot down North Korean aircraft and missiles.

“This shows North Korea, whose navy is rather small, is extremely alarmed,” said Toshimitsu Shigemura, an expert on North Korean issues at Japan’s Waseda University. …

Alarmed by what — the South being able to defend herself? This is ridiculous, and the kind of rhetoric that continues to egg on the Stalinist North. Terrorism works.

Maybe the South Koreans will finally wake up, but I’m not getting my hopes up. Their “Sunshine Policy” towards by the North sounds a little too cheeky, as sun rays may be replaced by gamma rays. One would think we’ve learned a little bit from Clinton’s failed policy of appeasement towards the North. How long will the world continue to tolerate the danger of North Korea?

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Related: Dictator Watch, North Korea

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