North Korea: The End is Near

North Korea's official news agency announced today that the country has nuclear weapons, and is pulling out of the six-nation talks aimed at persuading the bankrupt, starving nation to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Citing what it calls U.S. threats to topple its political system, North Korea said Thursday it is dropping out of six-party nuclear talks and will "bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal," North Korea's official news agency KCNA reported.

This is the first public claim by North Korea to actually possess nuclear weapons.

In the past, Pyongyang has claimed to have the ability and the right to produce them. U.S. officials said in April 2003 that North Korea claimed in private meetings to having at least one nuclear bomb.

Of course, this can only mean that the Kim Jong-Il regime is once again on the brink of collapse, and is rattling the nuclear sword in an attempt to gain economic aid to avert another disaster. It may have worked in 1994 when Clinton was President, but it won't work now with George W. Bush in charge.

From the US comes another sign that North Korea is about to disintegrate, this one from New York Times editorial writer Nick Kristof, who is wrong about nearly everything:

There are two words the Bush administration doesn't want you to think about: North Korea. That's because the most dangerous failure of U.S. policy these days is in North Korea. President Bush has been startlingly passive as North Korea has begun churning out nuclear weapons like hot cakes.

Lately there's been more speculation that North Korea's regime is about to topple, partly because of reports of unrest and partly because Kim Jong Il has apparently sent out instructions that his pictures should be removed from government offices and schools. Maybe North Korea is on its last legs, but I doubt it. I'm afraid that the US will be wrestling with Kim Jong Il and his nuclear arsenal for many years to come. Or even with his son, Kim Jong Nam, and his even bigger arsenal.

There you have it--all the evidence that you need to understand that North Korea is about to implode, from Nick Kristof and North Korea itself. Once again, we should think twice about propping up the North Korea with economic aid, and just let it spontaneously collapse like the Soviet Union did in 1991. We had our chance in 1994, but we blew it. Let's not make the same mistake twice.