While we wallow in empathy, North Korea is getting bolder:

First they dropped the bomb on another test, then they launched an additional short-range missile from its east coast Tuesday night, and now North Korea Threatens Armed Strike, End to Armistice

– North Korea threatened a military response to South Korean participation in a U.S.-led program to seize weapons of mass destruction, and said it will no longer abide by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.

“The Korean People’s Army will not be bound to the Armistice Agreement any longer,” the official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement today. Any attempt to inspect North Korean vessels will be countered with “prompt and strong military strikes.” South Korea’s military said it will “deal sternly with any provocation” from the North.

North Korea’s Kim Jong Il has challenged President Obama more in four months than he did President George W. Bush in eight years.

Looking at it from the insane point of view of North Korea, what is the downside? A strongly-worded letter from the US, or one from the UN?

UPDATE
Time for a nuclear Japan:

Allahpundit weighs in on Sino-American relations.