It seems that today, Monday October the 9^th 2006,Pyongyang has much to celebrate. Reports are coming in that indeed North Korea is now an active nuclear power.

If there is any nation on earth that knows first hand the dangers and effects of nuclear weapons, it certainly is Japan. And tonight, Tokyo has been forced to go back to the table and decide how to deal with the “nuke” kid on the block.

The Korean peninsula and Japan have a long bloody history that dates back to 1592 when Japanese military dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi first drew up plans to attack and tried to subsequently annex Korea which ended in failure for the Samurai lord.

From 1910 to 1945, the Japanese military now modernized and deadly successfully occupied Korea utilizing its resources to fund its budding Asiatic Empire. But once again, the sun would set and Korea would be freed from Japanese rule. At the end of World War II, Japan had relinquished its control on Korea and the two dominant victorious super powers, the Soviet Union and United States, swooped in for control. No agreement could be reached between the two cold war enemies and after a blood three year battle, Korea was split in two.

North Korean boasts the fifth largest army in the world with an estimated 1.8 million standing armed personnel. If ever there was a threat to modern post-war Japan, this would be it.

On May of 2004, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan released a statement saying “The Government of Japan will aim to normalize the relationship with North Korea in a manner that would contribute to the peace and stability of the Northeast Asian region, in close co-ordination with the United States of America and the Republic of Korea.” On September 17, 2002, Former Prime Minister Koizumi visited North Korea and held a summit meeting with Kim Jong-Il, Chairman of the National Defence Commission of North Korea, and signed the “Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration”.

Today, all has once again changed and a new page of history is to be written. As Japan decides how to proceed with its now nuclear neighbour, it is certain that there will be difficult decisions made that will no doubt affect the world entire.