North Korea Threatens US With Nuke Test, South Korea With "Physical" Tactics

North Korea continues to lash out in response to a United Nations Security Council resolution imposing new sanctions on the country over a recent rocket launch. Pyongyang has announced that it will conduct a third nuclear test, explicitly targeting the United States, and that it may take "strong physical counter-measures" against South Korea. Geopolitics Playbook readers will want to attend to at least two salient features of the current controversy. First, as noted by CNN, Beijing appears to be deeply displeased by its client's moves to destabilize the region. The North Korean economy exists at Chinese sufferance. Second, should North Korea initiate a hot war on the Korean peninsula, South Korea is fully capable of making the conflict utterly catastrophic for the Kim regime.