I agree. I'm only guessing at this, but I suspect that a lot of people in many parts of the world expected the old anti-Vietnam-war coalition to shout Bush down. Certainly it's been trying. It may be that there are some cold calculators in Pyongyang who are now convinced that he really is going to bounce Iraq, in which case the customary protestations of peace-loving innocence won't cut much ice. They are further convinced that the "Axis of Evil" speech was more than hot air.
This really overturns the kettle, and will have a number of interesting effects. For one, the "Cowboy Out Of Control" crowd in Europe is going to look a bit silly and Bush considerably vindicated. This on top of Bali and all of a sudden the idea that he's striking out blindly or after some ulterior oil motive sounds as silly and irrelevant as it always was. For another, the emphasis in the UN now shifts from isolating the issue to Iraq to a much riskier and more demanding policy decision regarding what to do about countries who are obdurate about pursuing forbidden weaponry. My guess is that there will be some serious midnight oil burning at UN headquarters tonight.
On the one hand, Saddam is probably not too happy because this makes the intervention in Iraq more likely. On the other hand, he may feel it's bought him some time by distraction. I don't think anyone in Japan or South Korea is actually surprised - their intel is pretty good too - but now they're going to have to make some heavy policy decisions of their own. Does Japan rearm? Does it activate its own nascent nuclear program? Can we now contemplate withdrawing troops from South Korea? How does China react?
This is very, very interesting, and I guess that I understand better why "may you live in interesting times" was a Chinese curse.
The American military strategy since at least the Gulf War, if not longer, was to fight single, isolated engagements while keeping all other "issues" (flash point areas) calm. One battle at a time, with complete control maintained.
We have spent quite a bit of energy trying to make sure that the Israel/Palestinian situation didn't boil over, for just this strategy. Perhaps our enemies are engaging in a counter-strategy.
If they can overload us, get us fighting many battles (including the sniper cell at home?) at once, hoping to spin certain areas out of our control they will at least upset our strategy and force us to form a different strategy -- one which we seem to be uncomfortable with.
Perhaps that is the role of the dice that NK is taking with its "admission" and subsequent belligerent attitude. Maybe they're trying to get a few pots boiling at once, thinking that this will upset America's long-held strategy of "one at a time".
Curse indeed. Fiction is lost on me these days.