Armed - and Dangerous !

North Korea appears to have joined the "Hydrogen Bomb " club and this claim is certainly credible as neighbouring countries report a 5.1 earthquake from the area where it has conducted previous atomic bomb tests.  The news has been condemned by other world countries and it will be referred to the United Nations Security Council, but exactly what action can result seems to reach a stalemate.

The " Hermit Kingdom " lives in a world of it's own.  It's borders are tightly sealed and it is ruled by dictator Kim Jong-un with a rod of iron.  It has armed forces that dwarf most of the rest of the world and technically it is still at war with South Korea, and from time to time launches new hostilities across the border.

This impoverished little kingdom expresses hate for the west and makes constant threats against America.  A steady trickle of escapees leak across it's border with China and make their way to South Korea, where they recount evidence of food shortages and deprivation of the masses by a regime constantly expanding it's military. Kim Jong-un's rule is brutal and on several occasions food shortages have led to the death by starvation of thousands of his subjects.

North Korea is allied with China but this seems to be a bulwark against the west encroaching  on it's border and there are often tensions between those two countries.  What China really fears is an economic collapse in North Korea which would send a mass exodus across it's border and force a resettlement that would be unpopular with it's Han citizens, but even as an ally China is unable to control the aspirations of Kim Jong-un.

The west has long puzzled over just what those aspirations may be.  North Korea has been developing long range missile technology and the news that it has successfully tested what is believed to be a miniaturised hydrogen bomb is very unsettling.  A vast military under the control of a paranoid leader with unstated ambitions - now with the means of delivering thermo-nuclear destruction on the tip of an ICBM - has certainly ratcheted up the risk factor by a huge degree.

What will trouble the west is the possibility of North Korea establishing a customer/supplier relationship with Islamic State.  IS has gained reserves of money from both donors and the oil it has captured in Syria and Iraq and North Korea is desperately short of finance.  World leaders would shudder at the thought of IS gaining control of a miniaturised hydrogen weapon because it would have no compunction in using that to destroy an entire western city.

Probably the only defence against such a possibility would be a clear undertaking that such a blast anywhere in the world would immediately result in the total destruction of North Korea by the world's nuclear armed countries - without warning or further negotiation.  Even China would be likely to join such an alliance against it's troublesome ally.

The only reason the world has remained free of the use of nuclear weapons since the end of the second world war has been the fear of how wide the conflict could become.   The only hope of keeping North Korea from exploiting this new acquisition by selling it to terrorists is the sure knowledge that to do so will bring it's own destruction.

Fear seems to be the only factor that maintains peace in a troublesome world !