Imagine a mushroom cloud of smoke, a flash of light, and tens of thousands of people dying.  Imagine millions of square feet of land rendered useless for generations and people in a thousand mile radius getting toxic fallout; cancer within slowly eating away at their bodies and poisoning their gene pool.

You don’t have to imagine it.  Hiroshima and Nagasaki have already lived through such a scenario.  And while the dropping of both atomic bombs effectively ended World War II, it was the opening salvo in a Dr. Suessian Butter Battle Book race of brinksmanship and posturing, the like of which the world has never seen.

For the last half century or so, while the major powers have stockpiled enough nuclear weapons, slowly but surely, smaller nations entered into the discussion. Generally speaking, these nations of nuclear might correlated with the largest economic powers as the UK, France, and China joined the group of established nuclear powers, each with the idea that as economies rise and fall and politics change, remaining militarily relevant was key.

Although it exists on the opposite side of the world and is physically bound by China and Russia, North Korea has been the object of US enmity for decades following the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War. In the post Cold-War world, it has found itself in relative political isolation, never actually signing a peace treaty with South Korea and generally not recognizing United Nations dictates regarding its actions. As a nation it espouses a doctrine of self reliance and as such, it does not bother to maintain cooperation or coordination with any sovereignty outside of China, Russia and regional allies, be it Canada, the United States, Britain or the European Union.

The advent of its nuclear manifestation however, has exacerbated already tenuous relationships. North Korea has its first nuclear test in October of 2006.  That action led to harsh economic sanctions from the United States and others in the region, including a freeze of North Korean assets held in a Chinese bank. In summary, since their arrival at the nuclear stage, North Korea has been dealt with using different gloves. While the surrounding countries may not be comfortable with its capability, they can no longer afford to posture to a nuclear country.  They possess the fourth largest military in the world and a national identity that is inherently resistant to outside control and bully tactics.