Through interviews with officials and analysts in the US, China, Korea, Japan and Australia, including Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, this documentary asks if the Hermit State of North Korea has the world's only superpower over a barrel. President Bush insists that that he won't submit to nuclear blackmail, as he claims his predecessor Bill Clinton did. Instead, united pressure from North Korea's neighbours will persuade it, peacefully, to step back from the nuclear brink. But if North Korea remains defiant, the choices are grim. A pre-emptive military strike risks a hideously bloody war, whilst cconomic blockade risks famine and chaotic collapse in the North, and might lead to war as well. Reporter Jonathan Holmes assesses the three main options open to America and its allies in dealing with North Korea: bribe it, bomb it, or blockade it.

Produced by ABC Australia.