It took Imperial Japan to expose the internationalist idealism of the League of Nations for the silly absurdity that it was. Now North Korea continues to expose the internationalist idealism of modern elites who fly to Davos to discuss how the world is about to end if the common people aren't convinced to give up their air conditioners, but whose internationalist efforts are utterly impotent in the face of one baby-faced dictator.
North Korea's nuclear program is moving full speed ahead. Despite Clinton's nuclear deal with North Korea, which closely resembles the deal with Iran, the Communist dictatorship is approaching all the elements of a full nuclear power. And it has a history of selling and sharing its expertise. Which means that everyone gets to be full members of the nuclear club. Including the worst Islamic terror states.
There are of course condemnations. Lots and lots of those. And they're all worthless.
North Korea knows we'll do nothing to stop it. The rest of the internationalist club will do even less. Its dictator can starve and massacre his own people. He can kidnap Americans. He can keep generations of the same family in prison. And he can develop and resell nuclear technology to our enemies.
And we will do nothing.
These are the cold hard facts. Here's the empty chatter.
North Korea claimed Friday that it successfully conducted a "higher level" test of a nuclear weapon, its second in eight months and its fifth since 2006. The announcement drew immediate condemnation from the United States, South Korea, China and Japan.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on the matter Friday.
The North Korean government in the capital of Pyongyang said the test was of a nuclear warhead designed to be mounted on ballistic rockets and demonstrated that it was prepared to hit back at its enemies including the United States if provoked.
Don't worry. There's an emergency meeting.
The test violates United Nations resolutions and will further strain North Korea's already tense relations with the U.S. and other countries in the region.
Is that right?
The White House said President Obama, who was enroute home from a summit in Laos, spoke by phone with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
To reassure them that he will do nothing about it and they should do nothing about it as well.