Mr. Bolton indicated that one area of dispute remained the methods and legalities of how to inspect cargo. The new draft resolution limits the weapons ban to large-size arms, military systems and unconventional weapons.

Price of a broken deal Simon Tisdall Friday October 13, 2006 The Guardian Twelve months ago it seemed the west's nuclear confrontation with North Korea had reached an unexpectedly happy ending. Then the US treasury department stuck its oar in. In a deal brokered by China on September 19 2005, Kim Jong-il's regime pledged to give up its atomic weapons, abandon existing nuclear programmes and rejoin the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that it had repudiated in 2003. In return the US agreed to recognise North Korea's territorial integrity and eschew all hostile actions. The Bush administration thereby effectively withdrew its earlier threats of forcible regime change levelled against a founder member of President George Bush's "axis of evil". Article continues The US also promised to move towards normalised relations if Pyongyang kept its side of the bargain. It even revived the idea of helping North Korea build a light-water nuclear reactor for civilian power generation, a scheme promoted by the Clinton administration in the 1990s but later dropped by Mr Bush.

The September deal brought sighs of relief across Asia and in Washington, where rightwing newspaper editorials hailed a "triumph of US policy".

But the celebrations were premature. For reasons that remain unclear, the US treasury department chose almost the exact moment the deal was struck to move against a Macau-based bank called Banco Delta Asia.

Bush has openly supported "regime change" in North Korea and placed the country on his axis of evil list. On a personal level, Bush stated that he "loathes" Kim Jung-il and has referred to him as "a pygmy".

That’s why Kim has anticipated the worst and made plans to defend himself; that’s the basic message behind Sunday’s nuclear blast. Kim’s weapons program is the logical upshot of Bush’s belligerence. If there was no threat, there would have been no explosion.

From the CIA's psychological profilers to his many biographers, experts who have studied the North Korean leader believe that beneath the glaring eccentricities - the bouffant hair and oddball Mao Zedong suits - there is a shrewd operator at work.

"In the eyes of the North Korean leaders, this [nuclear test] was very calculated and rationale behaviour," said Paik Hak-soon, a political scientist at South Korea's Sejong Institute. "Nobody invades a nuclear power. People respect nuclear power."

Since Bush took office, relations with North Korea have steadily deteriorated. High-ranking administration officials have offered nothing more constructive than an endless stream of threats, directives and sanctions. At the same time, North Korea has withdrawn from the NPT and moved aggressively forward with its nuclear weapons program. Now they are prepared to demonstrate the results of their work by detonating an underground atomic bomb.

Mr Hill delivered what appeared to be an ultimatum to the reclusive state, warning: "It can have a future or it can have these weapons. It cannot have both.

"A provocative action of this nature would only further isolate the North Korean regime and deny the people of the north the benefits they so rightly deserve," Sean McCormack said.

"The US will continue to work with its allies and partners to discourage such a reckless action and will respond appropriately," he added.

The protesters painted "NO USA" on buildings and stood on rooftops in a brief attempt to stop construction crews from tearing down about 90 homes.

The homes were quickly demolished, ending months of arguments over the land in two rural townships.

On the newspaper's Web site, Choson Sinbo, is a picture purported to be of the black torpedo-shaped U.S. vessel.

The shootout occurred around 7:35 p.m. in Yanggu in the eastern portion of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), as North Korean soldiers fired two bullets towards a South Korean guard post, said a JCS official.

Yet the official silence spoke clearly enough of the predicament bearing down on China after it backed a UN decision targeting its long-time friend Pyongyang. Vice Premier Hui Liangyu visited Pyongyang to celebrate a 45-year-old friendship pact with North Korea, and to coax the isolated totalitarian state back to disarmament talks after its July 5 barrage of missile tests alarmed Western capitals.

It is the first time the USFK has made public its plans on how the joint Korea-U.S. command structure will be reshaped after Seoul takes back the authority. Unlike operational command in peacetime, that of wartime has been under the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), led by a four-star U.S. general, since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Pyongyang also appeared to have stood up to its closest ally, Beijing, which has sent a "friendship delegation" to North Korea.

Doesn’t this explain why Kim believes that he needs the protection of a nuclear arsenal to ward off an American attack?

How can we expect North Korea to stop building nukes when 2 of the world’s most powerful nations have just doused the planet with gasoline and are reaching for the matches?

The USS Mustin sailed into the port of Yokosuka, home to the Navy’s 7th Fleet, with a crew of 300 for permanent assignment to the region, 7th Fleet spokeswoman Hanako Tomizuka said.

Washington is responding to this threat by saying it might shoot the North Korean missile down. The only problem is the U.S. missile defense system is no more potent than the North Korean one.

Senators also rejected the idea by a former defense secretary that the U.S. make a pre-emptive strike against a North Korean missile.

However, there is also the not insignificant fact that shooting down another nation's test-fired ICBM could be interpreted as an act of war. And it would be unprecedented international behavior. No nation has ever sought to prevent another nation testing its own ICBMs by either shooting them down or taking preemptive military action against their launch pads.

The activation of the system is what one can only call a Pyrrhic readiness gesture, considering the system has a particularly distinguished record of failures in its operational tests to date and is still considered to be in the laughing-stock stage by most impartial experts.