The part that bothers me is why would China allow this to happen? I can think of only one good reason China didn't just turn off the flow of food and medicine into it's relatively tiny neighbor. They're quietly supporting North Korea's move into the nuclear club believing it will serve their long range foreign policy well. China knows competition over energy and markets in the next 50 years will gradually intensify. The chances of conflict with the west is high. North Korea's move into the nuclear club distracts the west from China's rapid military development and provides them with a buffer and a gambit player as an ally. North Korea can carry out China's hidden agenda while, relatively unscathed, China can peacefully pursue markets. North Korea is China's foil.
New York Times
North Korea test-fired at least six missiles over the Sea of Japan on Wednesday morning, including an intercontinental missile that apparently failed or was aborted 42 seconds after it was launched, White House and Pentagon officials said.
J. Thomas Schieffer, the American ambassador to Japan, at the residence of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi early Wednesday after talks on North Korea's missile tests. One missile was designed to reach the United States. The small barrage of launchings, which took place over more than four hours, came in defiance of warnings from President Bush and the governments of Japan, South Korea and China. Of the launchings, which the United States and Japan condemned, intelligence officials focused most of their attention on the intercontinental missile, called the Taepodong 2, which American spy satellites have been watching on a remote launching pad for more than a month.
It is designed to be capable of reaching Alaska, and perhaps the West Coast of the United States, but American officials who tracked its launching said it fell into the Sea of Japan before its first stage burned out. MORE
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