While it’s tempting to dismiss North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a lunatic, cut off from reality and surrounded by Generals covered in unfeasible amounts of braid and medals, the situation in the Korean peninsula is deadly serious – and becoming more so. Enraged by UN sanctions applied after recent nuclear tests, North Korea announced yesterday that they are recommissioning a deactivated nuclear reactor in order to make weapons grade plutonium. And though western commentators believe it’ll only be sufficient for one nuclear bomb, that’s more than enough. North Korea doesn’t yet have the intercontinental ballistic missiles needed to threaten America’s West Coast, but they do have the capability to strike US military bases in South Korea. The USA has already based one anti-missile destroyer off the Korean coast and another is en route. They’ve also flexed their military muscle by flying stealth bombers over North Korea. China and Russia have warned against sabre rattling on both sides, with the Chinese adding the situation is cause for ‘serious concern.’ The UN has also said that things have ‘gone too far’ and that ‘nuclear threats are not a game’. These pronouncements all assume that North Korea is reasonable and will listen. What if they don’t?