THE THREAT GROWS – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  North Korea plunges ahead with advanced weapons, any one of which can be exported to countries like Iran.  Obama will of course "study" the matter, and maybe even appoint a commission.  From businessinsider.com:   

North Korea announced Saturday the successful test-firing of a submarine-based ballistic missile — a technology that would offer the nuclear-armed state a survivable second-strike nuclear capability.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who personally oversaw the test, hailed the newly developed missile as a "world-level strategic weapon," according to a report by the official KCNA news agency.

There was no immediate independent confirmation of the test, which would mark a major breakthrough for the North's missile programme and violate UN resolutions prohibiting Pyongyang from conducting ballistic missile tests.

Development of a submarine-launched missile capability would take the North Korean nuclear threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula.

Satellite images earlier this year had shown the conning tower of a new North Korean submarine, which US analysts said appeared to house one or two vertical launch tubes for either ballistic or cruise missiles.

According to the KCNA report, the test was carried out by a sub that dived to launch depth on the sounding of a combat alarm.

"After a while, the ballistic missile soared into the sky from underwater," the agency said, adding that the weapon had been developed on the personal initiative of Kim Jong-Un.

COMMENT:  Extraordinarily dangerous stuff.  A second-strike capability means that a nation can absorb a nuclear attack and still have assets left – in this case missile submarines – that can strike back with its own nuclear weapons.

By the way, the American diplomat who negotiated agreements with North Korea in the 1990s that were supposed to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear power is the same person, Wendy Sherman, who's negotiating the nuclear agreement with Iran.  In Washington they fail upward.  Gives you confidence, doesn't it?

May 9, 2015