Talking the Talk

I noted that North Korean nuclear-capable missiles capable of reaching America changes the dynamics of any crisis dramatically. We will have to consider preemptive action to protect ourselves. I don't think we want to rely on missile defense as our first line of defense. Does our Secretary of State believe actions should back up his words?

This is tough talk on North Korea's pending missile test:

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday demanded North Korea abandon an expected missile launch as Pyongyang turned its nuclear threats on Japan amid a chilling new evaluation of its offensive capability.

Saying we won't "accept" North Korea is fairly hollow if North Korea does in fact deploy nuclear weapons. Their possession trumps our denial.

Demanding that North Korea not launch the missile on the birthday of the first nutball (Kim Il Sung) seems a far cry from what I thought was a change of strategy to lower the tensions surrounding North Korea's public tantrum to respect their authority. Are we prepared to back up that tough talk with action?

With a clear demand, Kerry put a simple metric on the table: North Korea does not test and so we win; or North Korea fires the missile and so we lose.

Admittedly, I'm not very good at the nuance thing. But was that demand particularly wise? Are we going to walk the walk?