Erection Day!

North Korea is lifting its Taepodong II missile peaceful satellite launch vehicle onto the launching pad.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that such a “provocative act” could jeopardize the stalled talks on supplying North Korea with aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program.

“We have made it very clear that the North Koreans pursue this pathway at a cost and with consequences to the six-party talks, which we would like to see revived,” Clinton said Wednesday in Mexico City.

“We intend to raise this violation of the Security Council resolution, if it goes forward, in the U.N.,” she said. “This provocative action in violation of the U.N. mandate will not go unnoticed and there will be consequences.” [Reuters, Jack Kim]

Our bluff is about to be called, and we’ll soon learn whether Obama’s people have more sac than the people they succeeded, or the sincerity of belief in the U.N. to enforce two of its resolutions. They’ve thrown out a lot of hints about shooting the missile down and imposing sanctions on the North, but of course, Obama also said last summer that he would put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism if it didn’t follow through with its commitments on verifying its (unmet) disarmament obligations.

Kim Jong Il has taken the measure of the Obama Administration, and we’re about to see whether he’s right.