Prince wrote a great song Little Red Corvette.

But the big problem was that the North s leadership apparently interpreted China s policy as a sign of unwillingness to pressure the North on nuclear matters. Indeed, North Korean behavior became much more provocative, including an attack in 2010 that sank the South Korean corvette Cheonan and another in which the South s Yeonpyeong Island was shelled.

Its sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010 were unprecedented, and raised inter Korean tensions to their highest level in decades. Today, following the North s third nuclear test, we seem to have entered the most precarious stage yet, with the regime declaring that it will never surrender its nuclear option.