Nuclear Transparency

North Korea, which is no longer a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, claims it has exploded a nuclear weapon. The international community has responded with expressions of concern and threats of sanctions; that is to say, in much the same way as it has responded to the non-construction of nuclear weapons by Iran. George W Bush has described the nuclear test as a "provocative act", although the North Korean government claims that, like the American and British nuclear arsenals, it will "contribute to maintaining peace and stability". North Korea, according to the Guardian, has "sacrificed its diplomatic and economic wellbeing for military security" With the insouciant attitude to other people's sovereignty which has done so much for our own diplomatic and economic wellbeing and military security, Bush has reiterated the international community's "commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula"; while the Vicar of Downing Street, whose heir presumptive is itching to replace Trident with something sexier, reiterated his commitment to George W Bush by calling the test "irresponsible". The "scale of the military threat posed by North Korea is unclear"; what is certain is that a threat exists. North Korea is reclusive, secretive, walled-in, curtained-off and closed, but we in the international community can be morally certain that its quantity of weapons-grade plutonium, which apparently is enough for all of half a dozen bombs, will not be wasted on mere deterrence.