N Korea set to steal Seoul nuclear show It did not take long for North Korea's twenty-something leader Kim Jong-eun to show off a skill perfected by his recently deceased father: how to steal a show. Barack Obama, Hu Jintao and a host of other world leaders are due to meet in Seoul from Monday for a nuclear summit aimed at preventing terrorists from acquiring nuclear material. North Korea is not on the official agenda. But Pyongyang's announcement 10 days ago that it planned a test launch of a new satellite in mid-April assured that its nuclear programme will be a central point of conversation in Seoul. Mr Kim, who took over last year on the death of Kim Jong-il, has managed to put both Washington and Beijing in an extremely difficult position. In late February, Washington was quietly celebrating an important breakthrough. North Korea had agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment programme and to let inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency return to the country. At the same time, the US said it would resume food aid. The optimism lasted all of two weeks. For the Obama administration, the North Korean satellite launch is really a pretext for testing the sort of long-range ballistic missile that could be used with a nuclear weapon. If such a test goes ahead, it is almost certain that Washington will say the food deal is off. Yet this will still leave the Obama administration in a bind. North Korea has already invited the IAEA inspectors back. If they arrive but the food aid is not delivered, Pyongyang is likely to send the inspectors packing again. North Korea, China and maybe some other countries would then blame the US for the impasse. The potential problems do not end there. It is possible the missile test will be a one-off, giving Mr Kim a propaganda triumph on the 100th anniversary of the birth of his grandfather Kim Il-sung. However, in 2009 North Korea followed a missile test with a nuclear test shortly afterwards. In Washington, the fear is that North Korea will follow the same script again this year. Not only would another nuclear test represent a huge breach to Washington's non-proliferation efforts, it would also present a broader political challenge. Mr Obama is already trying to make the case that diplomacy, and not military action, is the best way to restrain Iran's nuclear ambitions. During an election year, the last thing he would want is a new nuclear crisis in North Korea. Washington's discomfort will bring no relief to Beijing, however. China is trying to resurrect its Asian diplomacy after it managed to alienate almost everyone in the region in 2009-10. North Korea was at the centre of many of those problems, helping to drive a wedge between China and some of its neighbours. When Beijing appeared to turn a blind eye to Pyongyang's sinking of South Korea's Cheonan warship in 2009, Seoul and Tokyo re-affirmed their security ties with the US. This time the diplomatic fall-out could be even wider. Previous North Korean tests have gone east towards Japan. The US believes the new tests will go south towards the Philippines and potentially Indonesia. The Philippine government has issued furious warnings. As it happens, the launch is scheduled during a time when Manila is already tilting away from China and is talking with the US about boosting military co-operation. Another North Korean test is by no means good news for the US, but it does provide diplomatic opportunities that Washington will seize. On the sidelines of the Seoul conference, leaders will be trying to gauge the young Mr Kim's intentions. One theory has it that North Korea has worked out China's bottom line - that as long as the Kim family can prevent the country from collapsing, Beijing will not push back too hard against any provocations. However, another possibility is that the test indicates deep divisions in the North Korea leadership, with one group wanting to sit down with the US to get much-needed food aid and another sabotaging those efforts. Whatever the truth, it is likely to be a tense few months on the Korean peninsula.