SINGAPORE — Will North Korea be the Obama administration's first Asian crisis? Pyongyang has recently been cranking up its bellicose rhetoric, declaring that it would maintain its "status as a nuclear weapons state" and "smash" South Korea's government in an "all-out confrontation" for tying aid to disarmament.
Of course, this is vintage North Korean saber-rattling and a tactic it has often used in the past. But is it designed this time especially to raise the stakes and improve Pyongyang's bargaining leverage as it prepares to open negotiations with the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama?
Or does it represent a defiant resetting of the North's negotiating terms, based on its determination to keep nuclear arms until the regime feels secure?