No more than another phony show for our consumption. North Korea is a sovereign country and has just as much right to nuclear weapons as US, Pakistan, India, Russia, Israel, China…and who know how many other counties….

Despite the commitment of NPT signatories to reduce and then eliminate their stockpiles, the nuclear club members have made only limited moves in that direction. Indeed, several countries are actively modernizing their arsenals. China is reportedly expanding its limited stockpile and introducing a submarine-launched capability. Even more important, the United States has embarked on Complex 2030, which will produce a new generation of nuclear warheads and may well prompt a whole new round of testing. Meanwhile, there is no adequate international mechanism to safeguard the vast amount of nuclear material now available, enough to build 300,000 bombs.

The United States has refused to take the lead in reducing nuclear weapons or their threat, even though former high-ranking officials such as former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger have recently urged “a world free of nuclear weapons. The United States has the most sophisticated nuclear arsenal, it is the only country to have used nuclear weapons, and it has consistently threatened to use them ever since. A just nuclear policy would focus not simply on attempting to suppress the nuclear ambitions of one Kim Jong Il after another. A just nuclear policy would focus on the nuclear alpha male. The only feasible path to just nuclear disarmament begins with Washington.

Public Service Announcement: Former President Bill Clinton will be on Larry King tonight, from his library in Arkansas. The promo indicated they’ll talk about SOS Hillary, too. (Learned that from listening to Lou Dobbs in the background, with Kitty Pilgrim hosting. Otherwise, I don’t watch much CNN anymore.)