The World Gone MAD...No Secrets Anymore

Well the mad little bugger has gone and done it. Kim Jong-il, the Dear Leader of North Korea, has successfully tested his country's first nuclear weapon. The last people on the planet to hear about it were, according to an article the Daily Telegraph, the North Korean people. But this is not entirely a surprise, it has become almost common practice for governments to withhold information from their own people that they are quite content to share with the rest of the world.

I remember well the book Spycatcher , written by Peter Wright. This book detailed the hunt for moles in the British Secret Service. The story was an old one, and not much of the information was new, but the British government banned publication in the UK. But the book was published in every other country on the planet. It seemed that the government was afraid that the British people were not to be trusted with the information.

There has been some question concerning George W. Bush's inclination to classify reports and studies that do not entirely agree with or support his own administration's perspectives on issues. But to simply classify any disagreement or dissent from the governments official stance is most definitely not democratic or useful. But, in these times of global networks and instant information, only a government like Kim Jong-il's could hope for absolute control over dissemination of news and information.

But, as far as nuclear technology is concerned, the secret is well and truely out.



But, what happens next?

Japan, the only nation on earth, so far, to have been hit with nuclear weapons, is sitting across a very narrow body of water from North Korea, and across a very wide body of water from it's strongest ally the United States. Will Japan amend off it's pacifist Constitution in the face of this new and very real nuclear threat? Will South Korea re-think it's "sunshine" policy of reconciliation and appeasemnt with North Korea, and adopt a more hardline approach? Both of these countries already have the technology and raw materials to reach parity with North Korea in a matter of months.

And what about these guys? Surely they will not be deterred from pursuing their own nuclear ambitions by the foot stamping and verbal recriminations echoing from the UN.

It would seem that a new day has dawned. A nuclear day. With the US, and what is left of her allies, contemplating preemptive strikes, and the possibility of China coming to the aid of her Communist prodigy, the world is indeed becoming a very dangerous place. But there remains one sure deterrent to the seemingly inevitible holocaust:

MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)