LOS ANGELES -- One mustn't make too light of the presumed North Korean underground nuclear test, but the fact is that whenever instruments detect a lot of ground-shaking in North Korea, it could be because of almost anything.

The shaking could be due to the mass collapse of thousands of North Koreans from starvation, or even from the raucous rattling of malfunctioning rockets that come crashing to the ground shortly after takeoff. Some day perhaps, an odd and ominous sound may be triggered by the surprise thud of a thunderous Chinese coup against Pyongyang.

Don't laugh. This most unlikable regime's widely publicized boast of having conducted a small explosion cannot paper over the fact that North Korea is a pouting paper tiger. To keep things in perspective, the alleged nuclear test was minute in size -- so small, in fact, that a conventional explosion could have had the same seismic impact.