Matt 24 Watch, 1: As World War 4 Goes "Officially" Nuclear . . .

The big news over the weekend was that North Korea announced a "successful" nuclear explosion test.

While there is some debate over the size of the blast -- 500 - 1,000 tons of TNT equivalent [France, US] or, not sure yet [S Korea], or 5,000 - 15,000 tons [Russia], ie. comparable to the Hiroshima bomb -- the implications are sobering. Perhaps most significant is China's warning to the North Koreans that they face puntive measures, as an "official" nuclear-bomb and missile-armed North Korea all but certainly implies that Japan will go nuclear in self-defense, which for excellent reasons connected to a sad history, scares China.

Further to this, given the issues long since raised over the Axis of Evil, the links from North Korea to Pakistan, and onward to Iran and [formerly] Iraq, thence other dodgy states and Islamist terrorist groups, cast a long shadow indeed over the current geostrategic conflict that has raged since 1979 - 82 when the Mullahs took power in Iran and the Muslim Brother hood developed their global 100-year subjugation plan, and thus the third major militant Islamist geostrategic surge began. (By my count, this makes World War IV: WWI & II are obvious, but in the aftermath of the latter, the rise of nukes shifted the style of global conflicts [so that WWIII, despite a few frighteningly close shaves, did not go to all-out full blown direct fighting between the major powers]. WW IV began before WW III was over! And now, it is approaching the status of active nuclear powers on both sides.)

So now, some very grim issues are on the world's tables, and the situation begins to look even more like the League of Nations in the 1930's -- but this time around with Nukes in play.

Sobering, but unsurprising; except, to those who have thought that mere sweet reason is enough to deter evildoers. So now, let us pray along the lines in Rom 13:4 -- reckoning on why God has set up civil authorities to do us good, and why he has put in their hand the power adn responsibility of the sword, to defend us from evildoers.

May God grant us wisdom, and unwavering resolve, in this sad time. END

UPDATES, Oct 11:

1] Caroline Glick of Jerusalem Post points to the nuclear test as the turning point of the current World War, and highlights patterns in the diplomacy and links to the Middle East:

Karl Marx got things backwards. History does not repeat itself first as tragedy and then as farce. Rather, it repeats itself first as farce and second as tragedy . . . . It was the Clinton administration, which back in the Roaring '90s began the policy of appeasing North Korea. Throughout the decade the US wined and dined the North Korean Stalinists who always responded by pocketing US concessions and escalating their nuclear and ballistic missile activities and threats against the US and its Asian allies.

The farce was then US secretary of state Madeleine Albright's visit to Pyongyang in late October 2000, two weeks before the US presidential elections. There, after the North Koreans tested the Taepo-Dong 1 ballistic missile off the coast of Japan in 1998 and refused to end either their missile programs or missile exports to Iran, Albright tripped the night fantastic with Kim Jong-Il . . . .

The great shift, then which occurred under the Bush administration, a shift for which President George W. Bush has been pilloried by his political rivals, has been rhetorical.

While hypocritical, the division between rhetoric and substance has something to recommend it. The benefit of the current US position toward North Korea and Iran is that the rhetoric has left open the possibility that the policy itself will finally be suited to reality. Today, unlike the situation in the 1990s, the American public is at least aware that these states are a threat to US national security interests . . . .

North Korea's nuclear test and Iran's nuclear intimidation show us what happens when failed policies are not abandoned. Due in part to its continued US-backed legitimacy, the PA is used by Pakistan as an excuse for terror sponsorship and nuclear proliferation and by jihadists throughout the world as justification for attacks on Western and Jewish targets.

No doubt the North Korean nuclear test is a turning point in this world war.

The question is whether it will force the US to finally part with appeasement, or whether Rice will convince President Bush to take his chances by repeating history a third and fourth time.

2] WND reports on a North Korean threat: According to an "unnamed" NK official:

We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes," the official said yesterday. "That depends on how the U.S. will act." . . . . "The nuclear test is an expression of our intention to face the United States across the negotiating table," official said. "What we want is security of the (North), including guaranteeing our system."

In short, outright nuclear blackmail, with direct implications for the situation with Iran.