As the security situation on the Korean Peninsula intensifies, war appears to be one of the few remaining options available to the international community. The North Korean nuclear weapons test is the latest action of an unpredictable and belligerent regime. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is pushing his impoverished country to the edge of nuclear brinkmanship, as he has set out on a course of regional escalation in which diplomacy is quickly giving way to potential conflict.

A nuclear-powered North Korea might have been acceptable, but a nuclear-armed North Korea cannot be tolerated. Kim Jong-il has already proven himself to be an irrational actor on the world stage, and his instability is further seen in his paranoid accusation that the United States is planning a preemptive nuclear strike against him.

Kim has demonstrated a tendency towards provocation and a disregard for accountability. He has taken an aggressive stance towards his Pacific neighbors by testing long-range missiles in the Sea of Japan, and the North Korean army has also made numerous border violations and incursions into the de-militarized zone that separates the two Koreas.

Since 2003, North Korea’s leadership has defied international, regional, and neighbouring calls to curb its nuclear ambitions. Even China, a long-time financial and material supporter of the North Korean regime, has grown increasingly frustrated with Pyongyang’s lack of cooperation on the nuclear issue.

North Korea’s pattern of escalation is putting regional neighbors like South Korea and Japan in a perilous security situation. If North Korea continues developing nuclear weapons and defying international calls for restraint, a military conflict could well be near at hand.

A nuclear-armed North Korea can also create an international nuclear proliferation nightmare. North Korea has already shared ballistic missile technology with Iran, namely materials and information regarding the Taep’o-Dong missile. It is quite possible that Kim would consider sharing nuclear bomb technology with Iran, a country whose leadership openly supports terrorist organizations and has called for the annihilation of the state of Israel.

A transfer of material or knowledge of nuclear weapons from North Korea to Iran would open a Pandora’s Box of WMD proliferation to rogue states around the globe.

The spectre of a nuclear-armed Korea and the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation leave the outside world few options for ensuring Asian-Pacific and international security. The North Korean regime under Kim Jong-il has constantly demonstrated its aggression and disdain towards neighboring countries, as well as the United Nations.

If threat, aggression, and force are the only negotiating tools Kim Jong-il understands, we here in the West, along with our Asian Pacific allies, should not shy away from using these same options in dealing with him.