China Warns Kim?

In what could be a very interesting development, China has handed Kim Jong Il a personal message from president Hu Jintao. The Chinese Foreign Ministry says the visit to North Korea by a delegation from China was "significant". There are no details of what was in the private message, but it is seen as highly unusual.

SEOUL (AFP) – China has tightened the screw on North Korea in a rare direct message to reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned his nation not to carry out a second atom bomb test.

A special envoy handed a personal message from Chinese President Hu Jintao to Kim Thursday in what a foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing called a "significant" visit to Pyongyang.

It came as Rice, in Seoul, warned of "grave consequences" if the Stalinist regime conducted a second weapons test after its shock first October 9 trial while also stressing that the door to negotiations remained open.

Tang Jiaxuan, leading a delegation of senior Chinese government officials, carried a message from Hu, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

"This is a very significant visit against the backdrop of major changes in the situation on the Korean peninsula," Liu said.

It is thought to be Kim's first announced meeting with any foreigner since the test.

North Korea's state news agency KCNA, for its part, said Tang handed Kim a gift as they talked of bilateral ties "and a series of international issues of mutual concern."

"Kim Jong-Il expressed thanks for this and conversed with him in a friendly atmosphere," KCNA added.

Kim might want to be very careful here. China may indeed have a gift for him in the near future according to some reports. It is likely said message would be delivered 7.62mm at a time.

Rice Reaffirms Nuclear Umbrella

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed that the US will use the "full range" of military options to defend Japan. That would be diplo-speak for the US will use nukes to defend Japan against any aggressor. For now, Japan is saying it is not ready to enter a nuclear arms race in Asia.

The United States is concerned that Japan, South Korea or perhaps Taiwan may want to develop their own nuclear weapons programs to counter the threat from North Korea. Such moves would anger China, which already has nuclear weapons, and raise tensions in the region.

Part of Rice's assignment on this week's hastily arranged trip to China, Russia, Japan and South Korea is to lessen the temptation to develop separate national nuclear programs by reaffirming the U.S. intention to defend the nations most at risk.

In Japan, Rice said she reaffirmed President Bush's pledge, made the day of the North's test last week, "that the United States has the will and the capability to meet the full range — and I underscore the full range — of its deterrent and security commitments to Japan," Rice said following discussions with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

Rice's words were a reminder to U.S. allies that the United States does not want to see a new nuclear arms race in Asia, but will likely be taken also as a warning to North Korea that it could face the U.S. nuclear arsenal if it used a nuclear weapon on a neighbor.

I do not know how long until the arms race kicks off. That will depend on how much more provocation North Korea provides and how weak the US is perceived by allies as our internal political disarray continues. When allied nations begin to doubt US will is when the world is going to be off to the races. Not good races, either. There will be no winners.

North Koreans Used Plutonium

Not that I doubted it, but US intelligence sources have confirmed that the North Koreans used plutonium in the device they detonated (or had fizzle – that's still an open question). I don't agree with the intelligence assessment that the New York Times is reporting, however.

The intelligence agencies’ finding that the weapon was based on plutonium strongly suggested that the country’s second path to a nuclear bomb — one using uranium — was not yet ready. The uranium program is based on enrichment equipment and know-how purchased from Pakistan’s former nuclear chief.

Nuclear experts said that the use of plutonium to make the bomb was important because it suggested that North Korea probably had only one nuclear program mature enough to produce weapons.

“This is good news because we have a reasonably good idea of how much plutonium they have made,” said Siegfried S. Hecker, the former chief of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and now a visiting professor at Stanford University. Mr. Hecker, who has visited North Korea and is one of the few foreigners to have seen parts of its nuclear infrastructure, said that it was his guess that “they tried to test a reasonably sophisticated device, and they had trouble imploding it properly.”

The supply of plutonium materials is known from the days when international inspectors kept tabs on the fuel rods in the North’s reactor, and intelligence analysts estimate that North Korea has enough material to make 6 to 10 plutonium bombs.

All this really suggests is that the North Koreans used plutonium. It does not actually have any bearing at all on whether they have weapons grade uranium. I would agree with Hecker that there is a reasonable chance the device was a fizzle due to improper implosion. Plutonium bombs are much harder to construct and detonate than uranium bombs. But none of this is conclusive, either.

North Korea Declares War On World

North Korea announced that the UN sanctions against it amount to a declaration of war and that they would not yield now that they are a nuclear weapons power. There appear to be indications that the rogue regime is preparing a second nuclear test.

The North broke two days of silence about the U.N. resolution adopted after its Oct. 9 nuclear test, issuing a Foreign Ministry statement on its official Korean Central News Agency.

"The resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war" against the North, also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The North warned it "wants peace but is not afraid of war" and that it would "deal merciless blows" against anyone who violates its sovereignty.

The communist nation "had remained unfazed in any storm and stress in the past when it had no nuclear weapons," the statement said. "It is quite nonsensical to expect the DPRK to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state."

China has long been one of North Korea's few friends, but relations have been frayed in recent months by Pyongyang's missile tests and last week's nuclear blast.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao warned Pyongyang against aggravating tensions and said the North should help resolve the situation "through dialogue and consultation."

The verbal volley came as the U.S. pressed on with a round of diplomacy in Asia aimed at finding consensus on how to implement the sanctions. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to arrive in Japan on Wednesday before traveling to South Korea and China.

After landing in Seoul on Tuesday, the U.S. nuclear envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said he couldn't confirm media reports that the North may be preparing for another test explosion.

But Hill stressed that the international community should make the North pay a "high price" for its "reckless behavior."

Hill told reporters he wanted to talk to South Korean officials about reports the North was getting ready for a second nuclear test. Japan's government also had "information" about another possible blast, Foreign Minister Taro Aso told reporters, without elaborating.

But a senior South Korean official told foreign journalists that despite signs of a possible second test, it was unlikely to happen immediately.

North Korea is becoming even more bellicose, rather than less. The tone of Chinese statements is very interesting. They actually do appear to be running out of patience with Kim's behavior.

You Want Brimstone With That?

It seems old Mad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn't really paying attention to how well his sycophant, (T)Hugo Chavez has been faring with his "Bush is the devil" speech at the UN. That is, not too well. Mad Mahmoud is now saying that Bush takes his direction from Satan.

Speaking to a group of supporters, Mr Ahmadinejad said he himself had inspirational links to God, Iranian media reports.

He was talking to supporters at a mosque in the capital Tehran.

The reports come as Iran is facing the prospect of UN sanctions over its nuclear programme.

The president has been making light of the risk of any confrontation with the outside world.

According to the Iranian media, Mr Ahmadinejad said he had inspirational links to God, and went on to say that if you were a true believer, God would show you miracles.

Then the Iranian president said Mr Bush was similar to him.

According to Mr Ahmadinejad, the US president also receives inspiration – but it is from Satan.

He repeated: "Satan inspires Mr Bush."

One can only hope that Iran overplays its hand just as Mini Me Chavez appears to have done. And as Kim Jong Il is doing.

Royal Navy Cannot Support Blockade Of NK

The once mighty British Royal Navy is unable to send any meaningful number of ships to support an interdict and inspect program against North Korea.

Plans to impose a blockade of North Korea to prevent the regime acquiring nuclear weapons were thrown in disarray last night.

China said it would oppose attempts to inspect suspect vessels and Royal Navy commanders said Britain was unable to make a significant military commitment to the proposed United Nations naval task force.

The United States is leading attempts to put together a force that would prevent suspect cargoes from entering the Marxist dictatorship and stop North Korea exporting weapons of mass destruction technology to rogue regimes such as Iran and terrorist groups.

Attempts to assemble the force began in earnest yesterday after the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution late on Saturday imposing tough arms and financial sanctions against Pyongyang following its claim that it had test-fired a nuclear warhead last week.

The UN resolution prompted an angry response from North Korea, which said it would regard the imposition of sanctions as an act of war and described the resolution itself as "gangster-like".

I had no idea how diminished the Royal Navy has become, but assuming these counts are accurate, they cannot muster enough surface ships to equal one US carrier task force.

On a vaguely related front, the US NORAD command center at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado is being mothballed.

During the long nuclear standoff with Moscow, the nation's super-secret nerve center was a symbol of both Cold War might and apocalyptic dread, depicted in such movies as "WarGames" in 1983. But with the end of the Cold War, the war room is being put on "warm standby" to save money.

A staff will keep it ready to resume operations at a moment's notice if a blast-hardened command center becomes necessary, but the critical work is being shifted to Peterson Air Force Base, about 10 miles away.

"In today's Netted, distributed world we can do very good work on a broad range of media right here," Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said from his Peterson headquarters. "Right there at that desk, including one push-button to the president."

Moreover, the U.S. military says the countries that have succeeded the Soviet Union as the main threat to this country — hostile states such as North Korea and Iran — do not have the weapons to take out a command center in Colorado.

I can't say as I believe this to be a good development.

If True, This Is Big News

The Australian is reporting that Beijing appears to be considering backing a coup against Kim Jong Il. There have been unprecedented criticisms against North Korea's leader allowed on the internet ever since the nuclear test.

THE Chinese are openly debating "regime change" in Pyongyang after last week's nuclear test by their confrontational neighbour.

Diplomats in Beijing said at the weekend that China and all the major US allies believed North Korea's claim that it had detonated a nuclear device. US director of national intelligence John Negroponte circulated a report that radiation had been detected at a site not far from the Chinese border.

The US may have employed highly classified satellite technology to detect tiny leaks of gas or elements associated with nuclear detonation, according to a diplomatic source in the Chinese capital. This would explain Washington's reluctance to explain the findings in public.

The Washington Times disclosed that US spy satellites photographed North Koreans playing volleyball just a few hundred metres from a test site tunnel after the underground explosion.

The Chinese Government has been ultra-cautious in its reaction. However, since Monday, Foreign Ministry officials have started to make a point of distinguishing between the North Korean people and their Government in conversations with diplomats.

Ahead of yesterday's Security Council vote, some in Beijing argued against heavy sanctions on North Korea for fear that these would destroy what remains of a pro-Chinese "reformist" faction inside the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"In today's DPRK Government, there are two factions, sinophile and royalist," one Chinese analyst wrote online. "The objective of the sinophiles is reform, Chinese-style, and then to bring down Kim Jong-il's royal family. That's why Kim is against reform. He's not stupid."

More than one Chinese academic agreed that China yearned for an uprising similar to the one that swept away the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 and replaced him with communist reformers and generals. The Chinese made an intense political study of the Romanian revolution and even questioned president Ion Iliescu, who took over, about how it was done and what roles were played by the KGB and by Russia.

This would be huge if it turns out to be true. It would also explain the sudden burst of fence building activity I noted earlier today. The article notes that details have suddenly been emerging about a number of failed coup attempts against Kim in recent years that have been previously unreported in the West. That and the sudden lack of interest in reining in vitriolic criticism of a close ally on the internet may actually mean there really is something going on here.

UPDATE: Others: Sundries Shack, Flopping Aces, Don Surber, Riehl World View, A Blog For All, Dean's World,  

US Confirms North Korean Nuke Test

The United States has released a statement that confirms there was some sort of nuclear device tested in North Korea last week. It was relatively small, and still may have been a fizzle.

In a short statement posted on its Web site, Negroponte's office also confirmed that the size of the explosion was less than 1 kiloton, a comparatively small nuclear explosion. Each kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT.

"Analysis of air samples collected on October 11, 2006, detected radioactive debris which confirms that North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P'unggye on October 9, 2006," the statement said.

Proof of concept or fizzle, the threat is the same at this point.

China Increases Fence Along North Korean Border

China appears to be stepping up its effort to build a concrete and barbed wire fence along the North Korean border. Although the project has been underway since 2003, progress appears to be accelerating in the wake of Kim's reported nuclear test. Whether the fence is meant to stop North Korean refugees, cross-border smuggling or simply meant to mark the border is not clear.

Scores of soldiers have descended on farmland near the border-marking Yalu River to erect concrete barriers 8 to 15 feet tall and string barbed wire between them, farmers and visitors to the area said.

Last week, they reached Hushan, a collection of villages 12 miles inland from the border port of Dandong.

"About 100 People's Liberation Army soldiers in camouflage started building the fence four days ago and finished it yesterday," said a farmer, who only gave his surname, Ai. "I assume it was built to prevent smuggling and illegal crossing."

Though the fence-building appears to have picked up in the days following North Korea's claimed nuclear test last week, experts said the project was approved in 2003. Experts and a local Hushan official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the project, said the military was in charge of the building.

A Defense Ministry spokesman, Ye Xing, declined comment, saying he was not authorized to release information on border security.

The fence marks a noticeable change in China's approach to North Korea. In the decades following their shared fight against U.S.-led U.N. forces in the Korean War, China left their border lightly guarded, deploying most of its forces in the northeast toward its enemy, the Soviet Union.

But the border became a security concern for Beijing in the past decade, as North Korea's economy collapsed and social order crumbled in some places. Tens of thousands of refugees began trickling across the border into northeast China, fording the Yalu and Tumen rivers or walking across the ice in winter.

I think this is a sign that Kim burned a lot of goodwill with China by testing the nuke. Whether that is enough to do permanent damage remains to be seen. China appears to want to keep North Korea and Kim's regime alive for the moment, but it cannot be entirely comfortable with an unpredictable madman running things just across an easily transited border.

Asia’s Crime Boss

Aaron L. Friedberg, writing in the Washington Post suggests how the rogue regime of Kim Jong Il might be convinced to give up nuclear ambitions. It would not be easy. Nor would it be by talking one-on-one with the mad midget. Instead, the money which props up the North Korean government must be choked off.

Despite what many have suggested, this cannot be achieved simply through face-to-face negotiations or by offering security guarantees and economic aid. Kim is a cynical realist and will not exchange his nuclear capabilities for empty acts of diplomatic deference or what he would doubtless regard as mere scraps of paper. The hope that he might be tempted to ease the suffering of his people is also sadly misplaced. Kim has been described by psychological profilers as a "malignant narcissist"; he cares only for himself and is indifferent to the pain of others.

Whatever his quirks, Kim is also a cunning and rational strategist with one overriding objective: ensuring his own survival by maintaining an absolute grip on power. The only way to move him is by confronting him with a stark choice — turn over existing nuclear weapons, dismantle production facilities and submit to rigorous international inspections, or face a steadily rising risk of overthrow and untimely death. This demand can be sweetened with promises of aid and peace pacts, but in the end Kim needs to be presented with an offer he cannot refuse.

North Korea is an impoverished nation with virtually no legitimate exports. Most of its citizens scratch out a meager subsistence. Yet Kim and those around him enjoy a life of comfort, driving powerful foreign cars, drinking expensive imported whiskey, watching bootlegged DVDs and treating their ailments with the best Western medicines.

The hard currency needed to pay for these luxuries, as well as imports essential to the North's programs for weapons of mass destruction, is generated through a variety of illicit activities: counterfeiting U.S. and other currencies, manufacturing and exporting narcotics and phony name-brand cigarettes, and selling weapons from small arms to ballistic missiles to any customer with cash.

Friedberg suggests a number of ways to choke off the supply of money. All will be hard to implement. Implementing a complete interdict and inspection program of all shipping will bring about a lot of difficulties. (But it could be that nations banning any ship from North Korea entering its ports could help. Japan has done so, so has Australia.) Putting pressure on the Chinese and South Korean governments to inspect in a meaningful way will also be very difficult. But it might be time to start examining ways to do so. Placing some trade penalties on those countries that continue to do business with North Korea may be the only way to force changes.

Is any of this going to make the US more popular? No. Would it have a chance of curbing North Korea? Yes. Read the whole thing, see what you think of Friedberg's ideas.

Failed Policies And Finger Pointing

Jack Kelly, writing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an analysis of the past failed policies that led up to North Korea getting nuclear weapons (assuming they actually have done so, of course). His opening lines set the stage:

If Democrats went after America's enemies with the ruthlessness with which they attack Republicans, the Axis of Evil would be toast.

No sooner had North Korea completed its (botched or faked) nuclear bomb test last weekend than Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., were blaming it on "the failed policies of the Bush administration."

Kelly then proceeds to knock those charges down – hard.

Two experts told a House committee in April of 2000 that North Korea was producing enough highly radioactive material then to build a dozen bombs a year, but it is unclear when the North actually built a bomb (if yet) because our intelligence on the reclusive regime there is so poor.

Most experts think North Korea restarted its nuclear weapons program between 1997 and 1999, said Paul Kerr of the Arms Control Association. But the Congressional Research Service thinks the North began cheating in 1995.

Signs of cheating were abundant by 2000. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright flew to Pyongyang that October to put lipstick on the pig. She offered dictator Kim Jong Il a relaxation of economic sanctions if he'd limit North Korea's missile development. Kim took those carrots too, but kept building missiles.

The Bush administration called North Korea on its cheating and suspended fuel aid pending an improvement in its behavior. North Korea declared (in 2002) it had the bomb, and the United States organized the six-party talks to try to persuade it to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Like Mr. McCain, I thought the Agreed Framework was a bad idea from the get-go. But I don't blame the Clinton administration (very much) for trying. Massive bribery hadn't been tried before, and if it had worked, it certainly would have been preferable to war. And, since as far as we know, serious cheating didn't begin until 1997 or 1998, it can be argued the deal did buy us a little time.

But even though the ultimate failure of the Clinton policy of appeasement is excusable, the refusal of Democrats to acknowledge that failure is not.

There are calls to reward North Korea for its bad behavior already from many of the usual suspects. Kofi Annan urged the US to enter unilateral talks. So have many on the left. They fail to see that the policies of the Clinton administration failed completely. Or worse, they know it, but refuse to acknowledge it. Kelly is dead right here: the refusal to acknowledge the failures are inexcusable. The Democrats had better start thinking seriously how to address the real issues here instead of simply playing partisan politics. It's time to try going after the real enemies of the US, not the opposing political party.

A More Dangerous World

The Washington Post finally admits that the way in which negotiations have been handled with North Korea have failed. They anticipate the same failure to occur with Iran. Nuclear proliferation is happening and the will to stop it is being sapped by Russia and China playing the old Cold War cards all over again.

The five countries that have tried to bargain with North Korea over its nuclear program — China, South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States — could have stopped the North Korean program and could reverse it still: Among them they have the capacity to force the collapse of the Kim Jong Il dictatorship. A similar coalition probably could stop Iran. But to do so, nuclear counterproliferation has to become those governments' highest priority. They have to be willing to make sacrifices and take risks.

As the diplomacy at the United Nations last week once again demonstrated, neither China nor Russia regard stopping the spread of nuclear weapons as essential. Both voted yesterday in support of a resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea, and talks will begin this week on a sanctions resolution aimed at Iran. But both Beijing and Moscow have worked to water down the measures, narrowing the list of sanctions and eliminating references to force. In doing so they have illuminated the priorities that for them matter more than limiting the spread of nuclear weapons.

China, though angry at North Korea, still finds it more important to preserve Mr. Kim's regime than to disarm it. Chinese officials reasonably worry about a destabilizing flood of refugees in the event the Kim dictatorship collapses. More cynically, they continue to see the regime as a means of containing U.S. influence in Asia. Beijing's view of Iran is similarly instrumental: It is a valuable source of energy and a check on the United States.

This should be a wake-up call for our politicians that playing internal partisan politics right now instead of looking out for the nation is a very, very bad idea. For all intents and purposes we are right back in the Cold War with virtually the same players and playbook. If what is happening in the world right now feels familiar, it should. We've done all this before. And right now, the Democrats are heading us right down the same path we were on once before with their shift to the left. There is an old evil afoot, we'd better realize it.

Ban Praises Sanctions, Urges NK to Return To Talks

Very interesting development. The soon-to-be Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, offered praise for the sanctions placed against North Korea while also urging them to return to negotiations. This is a radical change in the UN stance. He is not waffling here.

Ban Ki-moon, who was appointed Friday to succeed Kofi Annan on Jan. 1, said in an interview with the Associated Press that he welcomed the U.N. Security Council's "very clear, strong and unified message to North Korea" in the resolution it adopted Saturday, declaring Pyongyang's claimed nuclear test unacceptable.

The resolution demanded that North Korea give up nuclear weapons, and banned the country from exporting or importing any material for its weapons or ballistic missile programs. It also called on all countries to inspect cargo to or from the North to interdict weapons smuggling, and ordered governments to freeze all assets and ban the travel of anyone involved in illegal trafficking.

"I hope that North Korea will comply with this resolution," Ban said. "I hope that all member states of the United Nations will fully implement this resolution."

The resolution expressly rules out military action against North Korea, and Ban stressed in the interview that "we need a two-pronged approach at this time," relying not only on sanctions but on dialogue and talks.

He urged the North Koreans to return to six-nation talks which Pyongyang has boycotted for 13 months to protest financial measures imposed by the United States for alleged counterfeiting and money-laundering. The boycott began just after an agreement in September 2005 in which the North agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees and aid.

"North Korea should return to the six-party process immediately without any preconditions," Ban said. "We need to have the North Koreans get on board with the negotiations."

"We hope that the North Koreans will take a more reasonable and practical approach for the future. A much brighter future lies ahead if they implement the joint statement adopted last year," he said, referring to its September 2005 pledge to abandon its weapons program.

Ban said he was "very much disappointed" at Saturday's statement by North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Pak Gil Yon, who rejected the resolution and accused the council of a "gangster-like action."

Pak said Pyongyang conducted the nuclear test "to protect its sovereignty" in the face of escalating U.S. threats and sanctions. He added that North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons if it didn't face continued threats from the U.S., stressing the country is ready for dialogue but prepared for confrontation if U.S. pressure intensifies.

"I am very much frustrated at the path North Korea has taken of testing nuclear weapons in violation of all existing regulations and conventions and treaties to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," Ban said.

This is, frankly, the strongest statement I can recall out of the UN in a long time. Ban is coming out swinging here. He hasn't even taken office and I like him better than Annan. I guess that sounds like faint praise, since I'd like pretty much anybody better than Annan, but it wasn't meant that way.

North Korean Sanctions To Be Voted On

Surprise. John Bolton just announced that a deal has been reached and will be voted on momentarily.

UPDATE: And passed unanimously. North Korea blames everything on the US. Not surprising, so does our left wing.

Invited to join the council with his South Korean counterpart, North Korea's ambassador to the U.N. said his country "totally rejects the unjustifiable resolution."

Pak Gil Yon called the resolution "coercive … while neglecting the nuclear threat" he said was posed by the United States against his country.

He said that the nuclear test that was conducted on October 9 "was entirely attributable to the United States' nuclear threat, sanctions and pressure."

Russia And China Raise Objections To NK Sanctions

At the least moment, Russia and China have raised some objections to the resolution placing sanctions on North Korea. US ambassador to the UN John Bolton says that the objections are technical and a vote may still be possible today.

The five permanent council members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — and Japan were to meet in the morning before the full 15-member council convenes to discuss the changes.

"I'm still ready to go for a vote, and we'll just have to see what the instructions are overnight, in particular from Moscow and China," Bolton said late Friday.

The latest draft demands North Korea eliminate all its nuclear weapons but expressly rules out military action against the country, a demand by the Russians and Chinese. The Americans also eliminated a complete ban on the sale of conventional weapons; instead, the draft limits the embargo to major hardware such as tanks, warships, combat aircraft and missiles.

But the resolution would still ban the import or export of material and equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles, and would authorize all countries to inspect cargo leaving and arriving in North Korea to prevent any illegal trafficking.

In another key change to gain Chinese and Russian support, the resolution now says local authorities will cooperate in the inspection process, which covers shipments by land, air and sea. Both China and Russia share borders with North Korea and are uncomfortable with the possibility of the U.S. interdicting ships near their coasts. Bolton said he expected most actions would be performed at ports.

The accord came as U.S. officials said Friday that an air sampling after North Korea's claimed nuclear test detected radioactive debris consistent with an atomic explosion. However, the Bush administration and congressional officials said no final determination had been made about the nature of Monday's mystery-shrouded blast.

Results from another test disclosed Friday — an initial air sampling on Tuesday — showed no evidence of radioactive particles that would be expected from a successful nuclear detonation, a U.S. government intelligence official said.

The concessions already made in the resolution make the sanctions largely toothless to begin with. This latest round of objections will likely weaken them still more. Iran is watching and laughing. It knows how far it can go now.

All the way.