As Larry points out, North Korea's behavior long preceded Bush's speech, just like they started cheating on the nuclear agreement BEFORE the sanctions got tightened. Let's keep cause and effect straight here.

I think North Korea's current actions are less motivated by being formally included in the "Axis of Evil" than by the fact that they probably think they can get away with something while America is occupied with Iraq.

Of course, it could also be that their leader is a raving loon, and he was told to become politically aggressive by his salt shaker one morning over breakfast. Who knows? So far, it's all been bellowing rhetoric. I'm no more eager to have to slap North Korea down militarily than anyone else is. Severe damage to South Korea and maybe few conventional warheads lobbed into Japan by missiles are only some of the likely outcomes.

Right now the major factor in this conflict is China, and what it would or should do, and I would bet good money that heavy diplomatic back-and-forth with China is the prime activity going on right now.

As for Bush's speech, I'm sure it horrified liberals in much the same way as Reagan's "evil empire" statement. Whether the statement was accurate or not was and is apparently irrelevant.

Personally, I long ago got tired of worrying about hurting the itsy-bitsy feelings of mass murderers.