A few months ago, I walked into my old editor’s office and handed him a letter of resignation, saying I was going to China to teach English and try to understand this part of the world. He was overjoyed.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear you’re not going to the Middle East,” he said, probably referring to my friend James, who is in now in Turkey. But as the UN, IAEA and every weapons inspector the United States has sent to Iraq will say, the only nukes in the Middle East (for now) are in the hands of our allies.

The same can’t be said over here. Yesterday, North Korea decided it was getting far too little attention and had to throw an atomic temper tantrum. They tested a nuclear bomb.

While I’d be following this closely from anywhere, I’m getting especially jittery because Liaoning Province (home of Dalian, and more importantly, me) shares a border with the DPRK. I was even planning a visit to Dandong, on the border with our crazy neighbor, in a few weeks. Now I really want to go, because I’m not sure how much longer North Korea will be there.

(By the way, I’m pretty sure I’m not actually in danger here in Dalian, so don’t send frantic emails.)

I have to wonder, though, now that North Korea officially has The Bomb, will anything actually change? The U.S. will threaten, but can’t commit troops because of Iraq and Afghanistan. China has already started to step quietly away from the DPRK.

And like the missiles launched on July 4th and probably most of what comes out of North Korea, this nuke test didn’t quite work the way it was supposed to.

At least there’s something to take comfort in.

(For a far more insightful analysis, check out the Granite Studio.)

The next Shenyang post is still in the pipe. Up next, we’re telling dirty jokes…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 at 2:31 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.