I agree with those who say South Korea should take point on this. At the end of the day, they are the most directly affected. What I am trying to point out is the international community seems to be willing to limit South Korea's ability and will to act, in order to placate the PRC who is assumed to be a partner in limiting DRK nuclear ambitions. My point is that there is plenty of evidence that they are no such thing and we should not be telling Seoul to hold off based on what Beijing thinks any longer.

As for my statements regarding Fujian, call them foolish if you like. But if the PLA (People's Liberation Army, in many ways an autonomous body separate from the Central Committee) began new deployments there in the past few days, I would say it would discredit China's assertion that they themselves only learned 20 minutes before the test. It is entirely possible that the party officials in Beijing only learned 20 minutes before, but I cannot and do not believe that Kim Jong Il or anyone else with a say in the DRK would wipe their nose if they thought the PLA would take issue with it, let alone test a nuclear device. It is reasonable to theorize that if the PLA knew that the DRK was about to detonate a device, and that the test may lead to agressions and hostility, they would move to position themselves to start a 2nd front, to ease their Korean ally's pressure. Such troop movements earlier than 20 minutes prior to the test would indicate the top PLA brass did in fact know earlier in the cycle of events.