North Korea's Nuclear Threat.

HONOLULU Is North Korea bluffing? On Tuesday, Pyongyang announced that it "will, in the future, conduct a nuclear-weapons test." While North Korea has made idle threats before - it occasionally threatens to turn South Korea into a "sea of fire" and has even threatened to conduct pre-emptive attacks against the United States - this time the threat seems more credible, especially in light of its decision, in early July, to launch a series of missiles into the Sea of Japan, despite stern warnings from the international community.

As was the case in July, the international community has largely spoken with one voice in warning North Korea not to proceed down this highly dangerous path, with the United States and Japan, not surprisingly, leading the chorus. Even South Korea, which usually treads carefully around inflammatory remarks from its northern brother, has sternly warned the North about crossing this particular "red line," further stating that "we must take measures to let North Korea know clearly about the consequences it would cause if it went ahead with a nuclear test."

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