Nuke Test? It Was All a Dream

From today’s New York Times, via the AP:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea dismissed reports it is preparing for a nuclear test as a U.S. ”fabrication,” raising hopes that the reclusive communist nation may be ready to return to the nuclear bargaining table.

With the statement late Thursday on Korean Central Television Station, the North’s only nationwide network, Pyongyang appeared to be inching back from the stalemate over its nuclear program that has taken on increasingly ominous tones.

So we dreamed all of this, apparently. Since it’s all a transparent “fabrication,” naturally the North wouldn’t mind letting a team of inspectors, including a competent mine geologist, tour the place and confirm that. And of course, it doesn’t exactly reassure us on the broader issue of the North’s nuclear ambitions, given this very recent statement:

“It is very natural for us to strengthen self-defensive nuclear deterrence to protect our people’s dignity and security.”

I’d actually been hoping they’d set the damned thing off. Still, I think the NYT’s gratuitous speculation that this foreshadows a return to the talks, much less any real progress there, is unjustified. It seems just as likely that the regime decided that continued intransigence was a much better idea than doing anything as hazardous as poking G.W. Bush with a sharp stick.