Ineffective sanctions highlight need for talks

That a new, knottier round of crisis would break out after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test on Sunday was immediately clear, as was the fact it would not end any time soon.

With the dust the nuclear test raised and the verbal volleys of reactions it invited yet to settle down, come reports of Pyongyang preparing to launch another intercontinental ballistic missile, which, needless to say, would further raise the hackles of the United States and Japan, and make Northeast Asia's security yet more uncertain.

What the US thinks about the DPRK found expression in its ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley's remarks. The DPRK leader "was begging for war", she said on Monday while urging the UN Security Council to impose the strongest sanctions possible on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear program.