HONOLULU -- North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship is escalating. Pyongyang is now claiming that only a nonaggression treaty between North Korea and Washington can prevent "a catastrophic crisis of a war" on the Korean Peninsula.
Of course, Washington has said repeatedly that it has no intention of invading North Korea. Does this mean that Pyongyang will launch a war that is certain to result in its own extinction if Washington continues to refuse further negotiations? We think not!
Pyongyang seems to have recklessly concluded that the best way to get the Bush administration to the negotiating table is by creating a nuclear crisis.