The pleasure of dealing with it

摘要

While the world waits for Saddam Hussein to declare whether he has any weapons of mass destruction, matters are simpler with regard to the other totalitarian dictator who starred on George Bush's "axis of evil", Kim Jong Il. North Korea has recently admitted that it has been working on a uranium-enrichment programme in pursuit of creating nuclear weapons, in flagrant violation of four international treaties and agreements it has signed, the latest in 1994. Moreover, this week North Korea's two big neighbours and long-time patrons, Russia and China, declared their solidarity with America by calling on President Kim to renounce such weapons and ensure a "nuclear-free" Korean peninsula. All without the tiresome need for votes in the Security Council of the United Nations, or for having to sit through lectures on unilateralism or adventurism by European politicians. Disarming President Kim, by force or by diplomacy, must be only a matter of time.