Or so says the Korean Central News Agency.

And, yes, they’re serious (but you still can’t top the KCNA for sheer entertainment value.)

The DPRK announced plans on Tuesday to test a nuclear weapon as part of its “war-deterrent for self-defence” against the “U.S. daily increasing threat of a nuclear war,” et cetera at an unspecified future date. Pyongyang has said the test would take place under conditions in which safety was “firmly guaranteed.”

While experts believe North Korea may have enough fissile material to build nearly a dozen warheads, whether or not the Kim Family Regime is yet able to build a bomb is unknown. This most recent announcement follows the DPRK’s July 5th launch of seven missiles, including the Taepodong-2, over the Sea of Japan. North Korea first announced its possession of nuclear weapons in February 2005.

As expected, Japan and the US have spoken firmly against such a test and the announcement further strains South Korea’s Sunshine Policy, in which the Republic of Korea attempts to avoid hostilities with its Stalinist neighbor to the north by engaging in limited trade and assistance programs, including extensive humanitarian aid and economic incentives such encouraging certain South Korean firms to build factories in the North. Surely, China’s patience as the DPRK’s only ally is being strained. The North’s missile launches were widely viewed as a blow to the PRC’s prestige and pride as China had taken a leading role in dealing with the Kim Family Regime and used it as an opportunity to assert its increasing diplomatic clout. The announcement of a planned nuclear test is another slap int eh face to China and, should a test be carried out, it might make the PRC’s support of the KFR untenable; for China, while not exactly friendly with the US, Japan, or South Korea, is not about to trade those hard-won relationships for a chance to hold Kim Jong Il’s hand as he decided whether he wants to take his country out in a blaze of glory or continue to descend into paranoia (real or calculated) as the Democratic People’s Republic takes its last gasps in the Democratic People’s Hospice of foreign aid designed solely to prevent an almost unimaginable refugee crisis. (Out of the nearly 25 million people in North Korea, how many are going to decide that that’s where they want to be as it goes from famine to regime collapse to the struggles of setting up a new nation? How many of those people can South Korea, already packed with 40 million, or China, not exactly sparsely populated or rolling in the dough, accept?)

For Japan’s new Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, the announcement provides a test. He rose to prominence four years ago by being the loudest voice decrying the abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean spies and was conspicuously front and center when he, as Chief Cabinet Secretary, delivered Japan’s firm response to the July 5th missile launches, then took the lead as Japan showed a newfound gumption in taking the lead on pressing the UN Security Council for sanctions or other censure of North Korea. Since becoming PM, though, Mr. Abe has studiously avoided imparting any information or giving actual answers to any substantive questions. Now what?

Part of Abe’s “Beautiful Country” plan seems to be a renewed patriotism (or forced nationalism, depending on where you’re coming from politically) and it is not secret that he would like to see his country assert itself in ways other than with the checkbook. Now would seem to be the time.

In all likelihood, he will, like American officials in their dealing with the KFR, sprint to the other side of the looking glass from Teddy Roosevelt and talk loudly, even brashly, while leaving the stick elsewhere. This is what almost any politician, from any nation, would do as no one seems to have any idea what to do about those loudmouthed Commies in Pyongyang.

But what if they do test? What if they put Abe, not to mention the rest of the region and the US, in that oh-so-hot seat?

One thing’s for sure, no one who wants to wield any kind of political power in Japan is going to be able to even squeak as Article 9 is either turned inside out or ignored. We might even see Japan take Kim Jong Il’s bait and demand satisfaction. It would be very, very politically difficult for Abe Shinzo, who has cultivated an image as a master baiter of Japan’s Stalinist arch-nemesis, to not do something in response to a test.

It would also show us an awful lot about what kind of Prime Minister we actually have now, because that’s in doubt after his first week in office.