Upping the Ante in N. Korea

This can't be good.

N. Korea: We've built more nukes.

(CNN) -- North Korea is claiming to have boosted its nuclear weapons arsenal to counter what it says is the threat of imminent invasion by the United States and South Korea.

The secretive communist state's official Korean Central News Agency reports on its Web site that current U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which began Saturday, are escalating tensions on the peninsula and are ultimately aimed at launching a pre-emptive strike on the North.

"The reality goes to prove that it is very just for the DPRK (North Korea) to have opted for bolstering its self-defensive nuclear arsenal in order to protect the peace of the country and the fate of the nation from the U.S. moves for aggression," the Web site says.

"The DPRK's nukes serve as a powerful deterrent to keep the balance of forces in Northeast Asia, prevent the outbreak of a new war and preserve peace," it said.

Time after time we've seen independent analysis of this situation which makes it likely that any one of several scenarios may be playing out here:

First: N. Korea is telling the absolute truth and have multiple, functional nuclear warheads ready to go. Obviously this is "A Bad Thing"™ for any number of reasons- they could launch a preemptive strike, they could sell them to terrorists, have an accident, etc. However, as long as they claim to be keeping them as strictly a deterrent (the reason that we keep giving for having the largest arsenal of nukes on the planet) it makes it kind of hard to continue criticizing them without looking a bit hypocritical.

Second: They are partially telling the truth. They may have one or two nukes, but are inflating the number to make themselves look more dangerous.

Third: It's still possible that the North Koreans never successfully built a nuclear weapon. So why would they claim they had?

While it probably sounds tiresome to say, we need to keep looking back at the lessons (hopefully) learned in Iraq. Saddam didn't have any WMDs. However, he very much wanted the world to think that he did. In his mind, that was a bargaining chip and a deterrent to stop Iran, Israel and the United States from attacking him. And let's face it... it worked for a lot of years.

What the North Koreans don't realize, I'm afraid, is that they have virtually nobody of any power on their side, and there's a madman in Washington who's clearly not afraid to pull the trigger. (All statements from Condi Rice this week aside.) These days I'm not sure what area makes me more nervous... N. Korea, Iran, or the Taiwan Straights.