In case people did not have enough to panic about with the economy, North Korea happily obliged to add another heaping helping of alarm to Barack Obama and the rest of the world’s plate. This weekend, North Korea launched a controversial missile that has the entire world up in arms.

China is urging restraint on all sides, and on Sunday, Obama called for a nuclear-free world. Although the sentiment is respectable and I think the halt of nuclear arms proliferation is respectable, it also provided a mental image of two kids fighting while another kid stands in the middle, stomps his feet and says, “Guuuyyysss…stop fighting! Gosh!”

Indeed, Obama now more than ever, needs to put more legislation out to stop the proliferation of weapons and loose nuclear material. Treaties like the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 1) and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have fallen to the wayside, and, according to a Reuters article from Sunday, the START 1 will expire in December. There are at least 24 multilateral arms regulation and disarmament agreements listed on the disarmament.un.org Web site dealing with the proliferation of weapons and weapons testing. However, nations like North Korea, that are actually willing to use these weapons, are not playing nicely with the rest of the world

North Korea was once a member of the NPT, but withdrew in 2003. Since 1993, the Time Magazine archive lists several stories in which North Korea presents itself as a threat. Of course, media have often been rather high-strung when it comes to our potential destruction in a nuclear blast – just go back to the articles during the long stretch of the Cold War. Countries like North Korea and Iran do not subscribe to the regular rules.

Generally, most nuclear weapons have been kept in check by the threat of mutual destruction: the idea that, if a country strikes another country with fully developed nuclear weapons, then the first country will be struck in return. That said, places like Iran and North Korea are testing missiles and making threats with reckless abandon.

North Korea actually gets a large amount of food and economic aid from China, according to an Associated Press article on Sunday. Despite this delicate lifeline, North Korea still does not seem to heed China’s requests to stop tossing missiles over Japan.

I am not an expert, but I do know I am a kid who is honestly afraid of being blown up. I hope President Obama’s plan works. But I am not sure another world leader telling countries who won’t adhere to treaties to not make and launch nuclear weapons is going to work. It is a delicate balance, because, frankly, I cannot advocate the stopping of aid from China and South Korea into North Korea because then, innocent people are going to starve and the delicate diplomatic situation will be upset.

The Cold War rhetoric is going to increase as more hear about this event, particularly from the cable news networks. They might even get so cheeky as to play songs like “Eve of Destruction” or something. Wolf Blitzer is going to have a field day.

I hope people take serious notice of this, do their research and become fully aware of what is occurring in the world around them.