North Korea has moved out of the peace talks group few weeks back, and now it has gone into confrontation mode. It has sent out the UN nuclear inspectors out of the country and it also fired long range nuclear capable missiles as part of its strategy to upset US / Japan / South Korea combine.
Now it is said to be planning many such small range and long range missiles in the coming weeks, in order to show its military capabilities to its opponents.
But all of a sudden, why North Korea is behaving in a rude manner ? Does it do anything really on its own. For over two decades, North Korea has been getting good support from China and Russia, who have been using it selectively to temporarily upset US and Japan.
Russia has been slowly getting out of North Korea relationship in the last few years, but China has been able to grab a higher share of the North Korean military needs. This has helped China to use North Korea as a strong tool to negotiate with US and Japan who are now well within military reach of the rogue country.
It is important to note that at least twice , China has stalled UN proceedings against North Korea in the last few years, which explains its back end interest in North Korea.