National Security Advisor Jim Jones:
North Korea nukes "are not an imminent threat"
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates:
Obama administration considered the test aggressive but not a crisis.
I do not know what these gentlemen are trying to achieve by downplaying the North's nuclear antics, except to signal (to North Korea, and neibouring countries including Japan) that the U.S. will not do anything meaningful until it is too late to do anything.
Anyway, if the U.S. wants to avoid confrontation with China (and I think it is the case), only choice for the U.S might be to accept North Korea as a nuclear power (albeit implicitly) and to force its allies to live with it. If at all possible...
