The recent underground nuclear explosion in North Korea is the most significant challenge yet to the Obama administration.  Detonated on Memorial Day, it is a clear display of brinksmanship by a rogue and dysfunctional nation.  But what is gained by this display?  That Pyongyang possesses nuclear technology is widely known and understood by anyone paying attention.  Given the expense of such a test, and the depletion of limited nuclear stockpiles that it entails, why should Pyongyang do it?  Who benefits?

Pyongyang benefits, if the nuclear test is viewed more as an advertising brochure and less as a simple display of nuclear capabilities.  By marketing both nuclear detonation capabilities and the mean to deliver them, Pyongyang has significantly enhanced its viability as a nuclear arms broker.  Confirmation by the US Geological survey that a 4.7 magnitude tremor occurred in North Korea only lends additional credence to the quality of the North Korean nuclear wares. 

In recent weeks, Pyongyang has withdrawn from any semblance of 6-way multi-lateral talks.  More recently, they have torn up agreements pertaining to the economic cooperation zone with South Korea, prompting the South Koreans to contemplate plans for repatriating their citizens.   Kim Jong Il’s regime is systematically turning away from all cooperative means of bringing aid into the beleaguered nation.  Instead, they are flaunting their nuclear capabilities.  Perhaps a bomb of the same size as the one dropped on Hiroshima could command a better price for North Korea than participation in 6-way talks.  What would another nation or a terrorist organization, flush with cash and intent on doing us harm, pay North Korea for a large nuclear device?  Hundreds of millions?  Billions?

Surely, the Obama administration has already taken these possibilities into consideration.  The US must find a way to make clear to Kim Jong Il’s regime that actions have consequences.  North Korea may think that they can escape retaliation should one of their paying customers hurl a nuclear device at America.  The US needs to make very clear that retaliatory consequences for Pyongyang would be inescapable, should a North Korean weapon land on US shores.

Dr. Niklason is a Professor of Anesthesia and Biomedical Engineering at Yale University. She is a world leader in the development of advanced cell therapies for cardiovascular disease.