Much as the Iranians did during Jimmy Carter’s failed presidency, when they held 52 Americans from the U.S. Embassy hostage for 444 days, North Korea is now testing to see just how far it can push the Obama administration before the United States pushes back.

The latest test is the sentencing of two U.S. journalists to 12 years of hard labor on transparently trumped-up charges of illegally entering North Korea. This outrage follows hard on the heels of North Korea launching another long-range ballistic missile, detonating another nuclear device and withdrawing from the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.