No Dong, No Problem

The Dear Leader is at it again:

North Korea on Thursday announced for the first time that it has nuclear weapons and rejected moves to restart disarmament talks any time soon, saying it needs the armaments as protection against an increasingly hostile United States.

Announced for the first time? They announced that years ago. That's why the US said it couldn't attack.

Kim Jong Il is predictable, and you know what they say about predictability (well, it's just me who says it actually): there's no such thing as a predictable enemy; if your opponent is predictable, then he's not an enemy at all, merely a tool to be used.

Anyway, KJI likes to start his negotiating sessions with bluster & threats. But this time, I wonder if he has another motive. I've wondered before if Bush has been pressuring China to "take care" of their problem (see here and here), and if China has been cooperating, in order to eliminate a nuclear loonie right on their border. Might KJI's threat have named the US, but been directed at China?

His days are numbered.

UPDATE: For those who are interested, here's a typical report from the past, in this case from April 2003:

North Korea's nuclear weapons program has moved back to the front pages with the unprecedented acknowledgement by North Korea during talks this week in Beijing that the North has developed nuclear weapons.

It was "unprecedented" then, but it's "for the first time" now.