North Korea, after the long-haul preparations, has gone ahead and tested the most dangerous of the invented weapons in the face of the world. The defiant nuclear chin-up by the communist regime - despite its crumbling national economy - is fraught with consequences to which the world has ironically woken up after the deed has been done. It has belatedly resorted to lashing, what the Americans love to call, 'a rogue state', into global compliance through imposition of UN-cleared economic sanctions, the impact of which remains questionable in capping nuclear adventurism, often justified in the name of self-defence and deterrence.

North Korea has teasingly brought the world to a new nuclear reality for which the whistle-blowing nations are no less to blame. Isn't this a fallout of their own double-standards that have induced in them self-doubts and inhibited acceptable actions to stem the proliferation? Despite the condemnations, hasn't the red republic been helped acquire nuclear technologies by countries strategically aligned to it?

The tests have tossed up questions for the world to grapple with and settle the grave consequences that go with them. If it doesn't, the shuddering holocaust scenario may move from the screens to the real world.

The red waves from N-Korea are a signal to stop, take stock and make amends.