I second that. In my opinion, they wouldn't be testing missiles unless they planed on useing them. Why they are testing them, i don't know, but it seems fishy for them to randomly test things they shouldn't be worrying about.
Not necessarily.
Kim Jong Il knows that if he uses one, the Russians, Chinese, Israeli's, French, US, and so on have the arsenals to turn him and his land into an even more of an inhospitable wasteland then it already is, while he likely has the power to hit only a handful of cities within his region.
What this does give him is leverage. He can simply threaten Seoul and Tokyo and demand that other powers give into his demands.
And if someone, say Japan, wants to forcibly disarm him, he'll just threaten to fry Tokyo with the expectation that they won't have the balls to proceed.
This isn't the least bit surprising. It's what North Korea has been working for for twenty years while they pretended to engage in good faith negotiation with anyone who would listen. Iran's doing the same thing. Neither party was ever serious about stopping. It's as Cloud said, this has been North Korea's goal for decades.
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So, my question is, what do Barack and other powers plan to do about it? Negotiations? Those failed miserably. Sanctions? North Korea is already a total hell hole.