North Korea's Nuclear Spitball

Like the kid in class who misbehaves to get attention, Kim Jong-il (or his stand-in) has fired a rocket to distract the world from the G20 summit, NATO meetings and all that cool stuff from which he is excluded.

As expected, world leaders are denouncing his misbehavior and promising some form of detention punishment, but North Korea is back in the headlines and in front of the TV cameras.

Obama's special envoy on North Korea tells reporters that, while trying to punish them for the test, the US is also prepared to resume six-nation talks with the North Koreans to persuade them to give up their nuclear ambitions. “We must deal with North Korea as we find it, not as we would like it to be,” he says.

In the real world, such high-school behavior has to be taken seriously and dealt with, but the South Koreans, who know their delinquent neighbor best, are responding more in sadness than anger as one official says, "We cannot help but feel shame and be disappointed at North Korea's reckless behavior" and another points out:

"We are greatly disappointed that North Korea was willing to spend tremendous amounts of money in launching the rocket in spite of the food shortages they face."

The rest of the civilized world is left shaking its head at the sight of an impoverished Communist dictatorship, which can't feed its population, acting out with missiles and the threat of nuclear weapons to get attention and blackmail other countries out of lunch money to maintain its outdated image as the tough kid in the schoolyard.