Maybe Mrs. Clinton can direct some of her feigned outrage toward the Norks now that they’re planning to target us with nuclear tests and rockets. Or perhaps when John Heinz Kerry appears for his Secretary of State confirmation hearings someone can ask him about it.

North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its “sworn enemy”.

The announcement by the country’s top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed to a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction North Korea for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.

“We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States,” North Korea’s National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.

North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be “technically ready” for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.

China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang’s two earlier nuclear tests.

Thursday’s statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.

U.S. representatives issued a a strongly worded rebuke. Well, not really.

“We hope they don’t do it. We call on them not to do it,” Davies said after a meeting with South Korean officials. “This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula.”

How far we’ve come: From ‘Don’t mess with the U.S.” to “We hope they don’t do it.” That should have them shaking in their boots.

http://www.jammiewf.com/2013/the-fruits-...with-nuke-test/