The title of a recently released CNN article is "N. Korea's nuclear test REVERBERATES WORLDWIDE". North Korea may only be a small country geographically but it sure seems eager to flex its military muscles/might and now,the world is on edge because of the DPRK's latest missile test.

Many global leaders seem to be alarmed. "South Korean President Lee Myun-bak's government said it would join the 6-year-old Security Proliferation Initiative because of "the grave threat (that) WMD and missile proliferation is posing to global peace", according to South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young. Former president George W. Bush also used the "WMD" (weapons of mass destruction) for the second invasion of Iraq back in 2003, which was groundless. This time, however, the WMD argument SEEMS TO BE VERY LEGITIMATE.

Previously, North Korea had vigorously protested their southern neighbors from joining this initiative, arguing that such a move would be "a declaration of war". Kim Jong-il, this is what you are accusing other countries of. Are you not doing the same thing by forcing weapons inspectors out and secretly restarting/continuing down the nuclear path? Are you trying to tell us that all that uranium enrichment is solely for generating electricity?

The UN Security Council denounced North Korea's latest moves as a "clear violation".

According to a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, "The Chinese government IS FIRMLY OPPOSED TO THIS", demanding that North Korea "cease any action that might cause the situation to deteriorate further", adding that the DPRK "disregarded the opposition of the international community". These are pretty damning words from one of North Korea's few allies.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin called North Korea's missile test "very serious" and "a clear violation" of international agreements and therefore, it "needs to have a strong response", although it's unclear what this "strong response" will be/involve nor can we can we predict with any certainty whether this will have an impact on what is arguably the world's most reclusive government.

According to US UN Ambassador Susan Rice, "The US thinks that this is A GRAVE VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW and A THREAT to regional and international peace and security". Rice also said that the US government would seek "strong measures" against North Korea, but again it's unclear what these "strong measures" will be/involve and whether they will be effective in coercing the DPRK back to six-party talks.

President Obama said that "North Korea has PREVIOUSLY agreed to abandoning its nuclear program. Instead of FOLLOWING THROUGH on that commitment, it has chosen to IGNORE that commitment", adding that North Korea "is not only deepening its own isolation, it is also inviting more international pressure".  The key words in this statements are "previously", "following through" and "ignore". Communist countries are often ruled by one supreme leader who can change his/her words at a moment's notice so agreements made "previously" often carry no significance whatsoever which means that they are rarely "followed through" and are often "ignored".

According to Han Park, a scholar at the University of Georgia, "They are a big-time weapons trader. If we are going to try to do something about nonproliferation, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO INCLUDE DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH NORTH KOREA". The question is: how can we do this if North Korea isn't WILLING to listen and negotiate? Park also suggests that North Korea is "ANGRY ENOUGH AND HUNGRY ENOUGH to sell anything (that) they cna get their hands on" as long as it includes weapons. The best strategy that we can employ to deal with someone (in this case, we are talking about a country) is to build up our own defenses JUST IN CASE the North Koreans build a nuclear bomb that's capable of reaching China, South Korea, Japan or the US.

According to Rebecca Johnson, executive director of the Acronym Institute of Disarmament Diplomacy, Kim Jong-il "NEEDS to  demonstrate that domestically, he is in charge. Doing the nuclear tests, firing a couple of missiles, is A WAY TO DO THAT - PERHAPS THE ONLY WAY TO DO THAT - BECAUSE HE CAN'T FEED THE PEOPLE". So, Kim can only stay in power by inciting fear out of ordinary North Koreans.

"It causes a lot of anxiety in South Korea and Japan, but THEY ARE SENSIBLE COUNTRIES. THEY KNOW THAT THIS CAN BE DEALT WITH POLITICALLY AND DIPLOMATICALLY. THIS IS NOT A SITUATION WHERE ANYONE SHOULD SABER-RATTLING AND THREATENING TO GO TO WAR". Johnson is an American so it's easy for her to say that we can play the cat-and-mouse game with North Korean nuclear weapons for a little while longer because the United States is relatively far away from North Korea, geographically speaking. So perhaps North Korean nuclear missiles can't quite reach our shores YET. Countries such as South Korea, China and Japan should indeed be concerned with this latest North Korean missile test because they are much closer to North Korea geographically and if a North Korean missile were to reach any of these countries, the consequences may very well be catastrophic.