The United States won't have an easy time deciphering the latest movements by an increasingly complex and threatening North Korea.
The only things that appear somewhat certain are that the nuclear accord worked out last year by former President Jimmy Carter is in jeopardy and that the North's Communist leaders once again are blustering and flexing their muscles.Last week, North Korea took another giant step toward dismantling the 42-year-old Korean War armistice by expelling all Polish military observers. The Poles and Czechoslovakia once represented North Korean interests in enforcing the armistice. But the Poles, Czechs and Slovaks now are democracies, and North Korea no longer considers them friends.
The Polish ouster comes two years after Czechoslovakia withdrew.
Rather than rely on the old armistice agreement, the North said it wants to deal directly with the United States, and it accused the Americans of helping build up and heavily arm the South.
Add to this the fact that North Korea's defense minister and army chief, Marshal O Jin U died last weekend, and the situation becomes even more confusing.
O was thought by some to be the true leader of the nation since the death of Kim Il Sung last year. Others supported various theories that he was either helping Kim Jong Il, son of the late leader, or trying to overthrow him. The vastly divergent theories espoused by observers and experts have made events virtually impossible to analyze.
During the past several months North Korea has steadfastly refused to accept South Korean nuclear power reactors - one of the payoffs in the agreement brokered by Carter. Suspicions continue that the Communist nation still is trying to develop its own nuclear arsenal.
The uncertainty is troubling, and the United States has little choice but to wait and observe whether the nation's leadership and intentions become any clearer during coming weeks.
But the Clinton administration had better be prepared with decisive action to combat what could easily become another crisis on the peninsula.