Old news, but just as true today as it was months – years even – ago: sanctions levied against North Korea do not work.  The sham also known as the United Nations tried it, but to no avail.  The North Koreans were even given incentives once upon a time; that didn’t appease them, either.

So what does one do against a nation that tries to flex its muscles by firing missiles and performing underground nuclear tests?  Probably depends on who you ask, but on Sunday, Secretary of State Billary Hillary Clinton said that the Obama administration will consider putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The North Koreans were taken off the list back in October, but of course, their most recent actions have made other nations take notice and reassess their options towards them.  Clinton says that she’s looking for sanctions “with teeth” that will have consequences for the NorKors.  Another interesting twist to this web is the two journalists who were arrested and will go to trial in north Korea on spy charges.

That folks will no doubt be a bargaining chip the NorKors will try to use against the U.S. and anyone else; however, commons sense tells you that this is something that needs to be treated as a humanitarian issue and nothing else.  First of all, they’re television journalists and not spies.  But like any terrorist organization, they arrest them, detain them and then make up trumped-up charges in the hopes of receiving the maximum benefit.

But I kind of sense here that the North Koreans will combine the arrest of the two journalists with their missile launching escapades and try to extract some incentives from the U.N. Security Council.  Meanwhile, the U.S., under the clueless hand of President Obama, will in the meantime do little or nothing.

I expect that inevitably, a military solution will be the option utilized here since the U.N. and the Obama administration are paralyzed by a combination of fear and inaction – which is par for the course for all parties involved.