Since becoming the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il has put South Park's underwear gnomes to shame

1. Make threats and/or do something provocative


2. World blusters, makes yap yap, passes resolutions


3. Nations give North Korea all sorts of stuff, including nuclear reactors with a wink and a nod

Rinse, repeat every few years. Lately, Kim has been pushing the world, and, in particular, President Neophyte with provocative acts every few weeks. And now, after a strongly word missive from the United Nations and Obama, Kim feels free to ramp up his threats

North Korea threatened a military response to South Korean participation in a U.S.-led program to seize weapons of mass destruction, and said it will no longer abide by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.

"The Korean People's Army will not be bound to the Armistice Agreement any longer," the official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement today. Any attempt to inspect North Korean vessels will be countered with "prompt and strong military strikes." South Korea's military said it will "deal sternly with any provocation" from the North.

So, what will the United Nations and the United States offer up to appease Great Leader?

More importantly, what can be done? Sanctions simply hurt the people of North Korea. Giving North Korea underpants stuff will appease him for awhile, but, then he starts again. And all the while, North Korea is slowly increasing its nuclear capability and perfecting its missile technology, both of which it can export. In the case of the latter, it has.

Any military action, from blockades to limited strikes, has one issue: the city of Seoul, with a population of over 10 million and only around 25 miles south of the border to North Korea, in easy missile range. And no one knows the full extent of the military materials that North Korea has.

The one thing people do not want to do is over-estimate Kim Jong Il. He does this to get stuff. Do not over-react.

Crossed at Pirate's Cove