Let's focus on those Korean nukes

North Korean nukes. Now there's a real issue for voters to tap into in the weeks before an election.

But in the days leading up to North Korea's underground nuclear test, we had the sorry spectacle of the political and media elite baying on about the scandal of former Rep. Mark Foley pursuing relationships with current or former congressional pages.

Remember, Foley had already resigned. No one then, and no one now, has been defending his behavior, and no one should, but is the moral failure of one man in Congress really what we want to spend all our time talking about when our country faces so many other important challenges?

What's real, and urgent, and important is North Korea's newfound status as a nuclear nation. The socially and economically backwards country has proven once and for all that it is a danger militarily. No one knows exactly what happened in Monday's announced nuclear test, but whether it tested a small nuclear bomb or just pretended to, North Korea clearly showed once again that it has no interest in being a part of the community of nations, except as an arms merchant.

This is a country that can't feed itself, yet its despotic ruler likes to spend lavishly on a one-million strong military that is basically the country's strongest economic asset. North Korea depends hugely on foreign aid, yet it can put on the grandest of goose-stepping military parades that reveal the menacing nature of Kim Jong Il's unstable psyche.

It is no wonder that South Korea and Japan, among other North Korean neighbors, have reacted to the nuclear test and the test launching of missiles in July with resounding alarm. Australia didn't mess around, immediately announcing that it will pursue unilateral sanctions against North Korea.

Observers such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have long warned that North Korea's primary export is weapons, and now there's a possibility that nukes could be added to the country's mail-order catalogues.

North Korea is a tangible threat that Americans should be paying attention to. The manner in which the U.S. government responds, or the manner in which the United Nations fails to respond, will shape threats that this country will have to deal with for decades to come.