Testing 1..2...3...???

Sometime during the early hours of morning (here in America that is, more exactly, Washington) a "peculiar looking cloud" was spotted from an intelligence satellite looming over the North Korea Horizon. The New York Times, BBC, Chosun Ilbo, and Reuters have all decided to run with the story. The New York Times reports that the Bush administration does not believe the explosion was actually a nuclear test itself, but that it may in fact only be a precursor to future testing (I might suggest that it was a test, a test gone wrong??).

Whether the recent explosions resulted from a nuclear test, or a freak accident, they have managed to reprise the question of how the United States should deal with North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Hard-liners in the Pentagon and the vice president's office have largely opposed making concessions of any kind in negotiations, and Vice President Dick Cheney has warned that "time is not on our side" to deal with the question. The State Department has pressed the case for negotiation, and for offering the North a face-saving way out. While the State Department has won the argument in recent times, how to deal with the North is a constant battle inside the administration.