North Korea, which is by some accounts facing catastrophic internal crises as Kim Jong-Il attempts to engineer the transfer of absolute power to his youngest son, has pressed its policy of brinkmanship even further by sentencing two US reporters to 12 years in a labor camp for an alleged border violation.
Everyone is, as might be expected, “deeply concerned”. It is hard to imagine that the Obama administration will be content to let matters stand, but hard also to see a clear way forward. North Korea is forcing itself into a very tight corner here, and given how precarious things appear to be within its borders, anything is possible.