North Korea Missile Test:

So much for rhetoric ... the provocation by the North continues, this time in the form of a North Korean missile fired from the northeastern coast of North Korea.

The missile traveled about 37 miles before plunging into the Sea of Japan. The news is still coming in, but this lends further credibility to the point I made here: Kim Jong Il will continue to ratchet up the tension on the peninsula until we take action in Iraq, and then he'll force the Bush hand with the very real prospect of a two-front war. Last week it was a jet crossing the DMZ, this week a missile fired toward Japan ... just days after we agree to send food to the starving nation.

Well, we can see how much that concession bought us. It may not be the next incident, but it won't be long until we read of the North firing on a U.S. reconnaissance plane or boarding a U.S. vessel in the Sea of Japan. Kim's leverage now is in actions, not words, and the Bush administration had better be planning for very strategic contingencies. Expect this situation to get much worse before it gets better.