North Korea fired yet another missile overnight in their continuing provocations to the world. Plenty of coverage has covered Kim Jong-Il’s most recent madness, and America’s ever weakening response:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEAVvo70KUY[/youtube]

The most interesting article I’ve read so far is this Washington Post article which claims North Korea is now denying it is bound by the 1953 Armistice that ended the Korean war. You’d think this would be a bigger story:

TOKYO, May 27 — North Korea announced Wednesday that it is no longer bound by the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War, the latest and most profound diplomatic aftershock from the country’s latest nuclear test two days earlier.

North Korea also warned that it would respond “with a powerful military strike” should its ships be stopped by international forces trying to stop the export of missiles and weapons of mass destruction.

The twin declarations, delivered by the country’s state news agency, followed South Korea’s announcement Tuesday that it would join the navies that will stop and inspect suspicious ships at sea. North Korea has repeatedly said that such participation would be a “declaration of war.”

Since eventually someone is going to end up stopping a NorK ship if it is heading to Iran or some other middle eastern country with what we believe is nuke technology what we have is a North Korea pretty much saying that war’s a comin’. Just this pronouncement have a severely destablizing effect on the region:

In Tokyo, a former defense minister and ruling party lawmaker said Japan should consider developing the ability to conduct preemptive strikes against North Korea, even though Japan’s constitution prohibits it from taking offensive military action.

South Korea had long resisted U.S. pressure to join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which was created in 2003 by President George W. Bush and includes more than 90 countries that have agreed to stop and inspect suspicious cargo on sea and land.

Don’t let those stories of a effeminate japan fool you, China and all the countries in the Pacific are terrified of a re-militarized Japan. Japan’s economy is in shambles and their beloved, bizarre popular culture is largely the result of enforced pacifism and ten years of recession leaving young men and women with no outlet for their ambition or aggression. If the culture perceived a threat to their existence and sees that they can’t rely on America to protect them I believe it could be a matter of a few years to see a return of Japan’s martial society. Not that it would change the outcome of conflict there:

North Korea is thought to possess more than 200 mid-range Nodong missiles that can strike nearly any part of Japan. The Japanese government, which has invested billions of dollars in a U.S.-made antimissile defense system, is concerned that the North is making progress in designing nuclear warheads that could fit atop its missiles.

“We must look at active missile defense such as attacking an enemy’s territory and bases,” the former defense minister, Gen Nakatani, said at a meeting of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

We have basically killed Japan by allowing North Korea and all the other countries of the region build up huge militaries while Japan sat back in a fantasy world where they could field a small defense force and big brother America would always save them. Clearly that isn’t true.

China isn’t happy with North Korea, but frankly China isn’t going to care about the NorKs stirring the pot while they quietly change from long term to short term U.S. Treasuries and start preparing for their ascension as the world’s super power. Nancy Pelosi is in China selling us out by negotiating some sort of agreement for us to cut our energy output and China I more interested in us crippling our economy and thus making us more reliant on them then they are in ensuring North Korea isn’t starting a war with states who can’t rely on America as an ally.