One test too many

North Korea's second nuclear test is a declaration of war on the international community and calls for determined action on the part of the West - above all the UN - writes the daily Der Standard: "Since the first accords were signed in 2007, North Korea's leadership has received from the US, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea a series of offers for energy supply and the end of sanctions in return for disarmament. The result would have been no better, no different at all in fact, if the states of the six-party talks had shown more fear at Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests. The point is this: the sanctions of the Korea-negotiators followed on their weak rhetoric. Thus, UN resolution 1718 after Pyongyang's first nuclear test turned out to be a complete non-starter. North Korea's trade with China and South Korea continued unhindered, for example. A first answer to this new bomb test would be a UN resolution that Pyongyang has to take seriously."

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