N. Korea - Provoking or Attention ?

I am not currently up to speed on the last couple of yrs on N Korea (NK), I have the gist of the situation there, I use to be solely focused on that country and the region for over 2yrs.

From what I am taking in, so far, of course this is all media hoopla right now, and from the threads I have read so far on this, the question(s) are at this point in time, feel free to answer however so, is:

NK looking to provoke a war by politics, forcing hands to make sanctions against them in order to obtain a reason and show its might and capabilities, so to say, its nuclear capability?
(Hence, that situation in Iraq/Afghanistan is in constant motion, the tsunami situation, which forces countries worldwide to lend a hand by whatever means necessary (i.e. military, CDC, NHS, NBC teams, Corps of Engineers, Intelligence Communities, Security Communities, all these not limited to US, but same organizations from other countries, that are occupied at this time)

Or...

To just gain attention, since focus last month was dedicated to Iran and its nuke capability?

Whatever NK does, its not a good move on their part, hence, they do require World Funds to supply the country for food to feed its people, which is one of the reasons why NK wants SK, due to agricultural reasons. In all aspect, if NK wasnt so afraid of its leader, maybe its council that supports that leader, should rethink about ousting Kim, before he puts that country in further turmoil. But REMEMBER, CHINA is a back pocket supporter, along with some old regime Russians and our lovely local terrorist organization, AQ, which I am sure has some inside, back door support there as well.

[edit on 3-1-2005 by John bull 1]

I'd say a bit of both...
North Korea certainly cannot take on the U.S. alone so I don�t think their sole motive is to start a war.
North Korea is basically withering away with each passing day. This may just be a last ditch effort by a party that is too proud to call out for international aid... The situation will not get any better by sitting there and with no intentions to 'bow' down to the western world as china is in no place to help them as the barely have enough resources to contain themselves. I believe it�s up to someone in the West to set up a sustained aid package to help them out.
All this blunt nonsense is BS in my opinion as knowing if they so much as fuel up a nuke there is absolutely no chance the U.S. would let a single fly survive in NK territory that they will probably make a short living selling nukes and whatnot to terrorist and other highest bidders.

I think N. Koreas "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il for now is just blowing off steam. Even though this nut is crazy as a bedbug he is not going to provoke anything with the U.S. right now. Even though he may be crazy he is not stupid. There is nothing more that he would love to do and take over the South Korea and that would put another feather in his cap. He won't do this now because he knows that Bush would take him out given the right timing. I think all Kim wants to is grab some headlines for now. He may feel left out due to the fact that the rest of the world is chipping in and sending massive amounts of aid over to Asia.I also think he is suffering from "aid"envy.

North Korean leaders have accustomed us to any kind of crazy and magniloquent proclaim against the "enemies of the revolution". But probably the most worrisome factor is that they've been accustomed to complete immunity. Talking big's not a problem, just ignore them and show a couple of shots from the streets of Pyongyang to show the world how much they care about their own people. It's their actions that are really worrisome: over the past thirty years their gunboats have clashed almost continously with South Koreans, foreign citizens (mainly Japanese) have been abducted to train NK spies, tunnels have been dug under the DMZ to infiltrate saboteurs into South Korea, NK diplomats have openly traded in drugs and got away with it. When South Korean and Japanese charities began shipping aids to NK (not only basic products, but also seeds, agricultural equipment and livestock), their workers were threatened, arrested without motivation, beaten up. Of course, these humanitarian workers were denied contacts with the local population, they had to deal exclusively with military personnel or party members. The right thing would be stopping the aids right away and let the country rot in its arrogance (perhaps they can ask for help to their Chinese mates), but when you consider that these aids are often the only substinence for the poor people of this country... Japan, despite being a close US ally, is starting to get irritated by their neighbours' behaviour and the kind of support they get from China (the great puppeteer behind Kim Jong Il's antics) and the lack of attention from worldwide community, while South Korea is starting to get weary of keeping an enormous army to counter NK and to sacrifice economic growth to keep in check such an unruly neighbor. Remember that the two Koreas are still formally at war: there's only a tenous armistice between the blazing guns.