North Korea tests a nuclear weapon

North Korea tested it's first nuclear weapon on Monday, confirmed by a South Korean report that a 3.6 tremor was felt. For those of you unfamiliar with the significance of this, North Korea is ruled by Kim Jong Il, a Stalinist dictator with a huge standing army and weapons which are probably capable of reaching the west coast.

The possible outcomes;

1. A militarized Japan intent upon building a new army and nuclear weapons
2. an invasion of South Korea and subsequent American involvement
3. An invasion by China
4. a preemptive strike by the US against North Korean targets
5. The most likely option is negotiations between North Korea and the US, China, Japan and South Korea in which Korea will blackmail us to obtain food for their starving citizens. Upwards of a million people have starved to death in North Korea in the last ten years, and the regime is constantly on the verge of collapse.

Both two and three raise the possibility of a nuclear attack on South Korea or China. A nuclear attack on California, in the event of American involvement, is also possible.

For those of you who need it explained more simply, this is a very serious international crisis unlike any since the Cuban missile crisis.