I heard a story on NPR this morning that starting next month we're going to start halting aid to North Korea, including lots of heating fuel. Winter's coming.

Basically, we're reinstituting sanctions against them for their little revelation that they've got nukes, against a long-standing treaty.

Here we go again.

Once again, the people of a country are going to continue to suffer due to their horrible leaders. Millions of North Koreans rely on aid. Why? Because the shitheads in Pyongyang spend all their dough on their military, developing new missile systems, nuclear weaponry etc.

So now we're going to institute sanctions, and many millions more will suffer. Without basic heating fuel, no doubt large numbers of North Koreans are going to freeze to death. Those that don't will suffer horribly, many probably wishing they were dead. Who is the world going to blame? (Hint: Not the North Korean leaders.)

These petty monsters have put us (including the US, Japan, and South Korea) in the unenviable position of either continuing to support a maniacal regime who has contravened a treaty that was contingent upon them abandoning nuclear weapons programs, or witholding aid knowing that it will cause widespread suffering and death. Precedent has shown that with North Korea, they don't give a shit about their citizenry. If given a choice, they very easily let their people succumb to famine.

So what do we do? They are willing to bargain with the lives of North Koreans. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a no-win situation.

And here's my prediction for the next ten years:

North Korea will not relinquish its nuclear weapons program. It just won't. Doesn't matter what kind of pressure is put on them diplomatically or economically. In this respect, they're a lot like Iraq. You can't softball these monsters, because they care more about retaining a chokehold on power than they do about the welfare of the average North Korean. Yet we can't use military power because they now have nuclear weapons and reasonably advanced missile systems to deliver them right across the border. We don't want to facilitate the nuclear obliteration of Japan or South Korea. Add to that, we've got tens of thousands of troops stationed in both countries.

So...I predict both Seoul and Tokyo are both strongly considering their own nuclear weapons programs as deterrence against North Korea's. They won't publicize this, of course, but Japan has a very modernized technology base, and it would be relatively easy for them to convert a portion of their domestic nuclear energy program into nuclear weapons development. I'm not as sure about South Korea, but I suspect there are South Korean military advisors arguing very strongly for this sort of thing behind closed doors in Seoul. We're heading for a nuclearized Asia within the next decade.

Feel safer?