This weekend, North Korea unleashed a new round of paranoid accusations and ominous threats on the world.
Even for North Korea, this weekend's comments were unusually intense. Kim Jong Il himself, a man who is only very rarely directly quoted by the North Korean media he controls, insisted Sunday that the United States was planning a major attack on the Korean peninsula and that such an attack would prompt
uclear disaster"" for Asia and the world. The eccentric dictator's paranoia has long been well-noted, but it was his blatant threat of nuclear force that caught attention.
Especially given that Kim Jong Il recently threatened to pull out of the armistice that stalled the Korean War (which, incidentally, never technically ended), and in the context of a recent assertion that the imposition of alienating economic sanctions would be considered an act of war, North Korea's comments about nuclear force are extremely disturbing.
What is truly bizarre, however--aside from nearly everything about Kim Jong Il's personality--is how the Bush administration's fixation with Iraq seems to be bulldozing any meaningful dialogue about the threat of North Korea. Despite the fact that North Korea appears intent on developing a nuclear arsenal that could pose a serious threat to the world, the United States has tried to frame it as an issue best resolved by regional talks and pressure. Even while North Korea rejects a regional solution and its rhetoric becomes increasingly aggressive, the United States continues to pursue what appears to be its new official policy--studiously ignoring Kim Jong Il's desperate bids for attention.
The situation in North Korea needs to be prioritized by the United States and the world community now, for a number of reasons. First, unlike Iraq, Kim Jong Il's regime is explicitly aggressive against the U.S. as well as its neighbors. North Korea's recent threats are anything but subtle, and their meaning could hardly be misinterpreted. And just in case anyone missed the point, North Korea has followed its threats with ominous actions like the reactivation of the plant at Yongbyon. Yesterday, in a particularly blunt attempt at provoking the United States, four North Korean fighter planes followed a U.S. reconnaissance plane into international airspace. The U.S. plane returned safely to its base, but the incident was symbolic in its resemblance to a 1969 incident during which North Korea downed a U.S. reconnaissance plane and its crew.
Second, Kim Jong Il's regime is widely believed not only to have the capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction, but to actually have enough in its immediate possession to seriously endanger its neighbors. At the very least, it is impossible at this stage to suggest that Kim Jong Il's intentions do not include a major weapons program. Given Kim Jong Il's erratic behavior toward his neighbors, his pattern of blackmailing the world community for aid and attention, and past incidents like the 1998 missile test over Japan, North Korea may pose an immediate danger to some of our closest political allies and trading partners--most notably Japan and South Korea.
Also, in a parallel to U.S. accusations against Iraq, North Korea's production of weapons of mass destruction could play a role in the war on terrorism--or rather on the other side of the war on terrorism. Kim Jong Il's regime gains important revenue from the sale of weapons and weapons parts. In fact, weapons production may well be North Korea's strongest industry. North Korea's role as a weapons supplier makes it even more of a danger.
Which brings us to the lack of international presence and regulation. North Korea's authoritarian regime not only rejects the United Nations and its inspection efforts, but also has repeatedly disrespected or outright rejected regional cooperation. The efforts Iraq has made to play by the international community's rules and submit to inspections have been labeled inadequate by the United States--what does that make North Korea's outright rejection of the international community? The answer is, possibly far more dangerous than even Iraq's little game.
In his State of the Union address Bush said, ""[We] must learn the lessons of the Korean peninsula and not allow an even greater threat to rise up in Iraq."" Unfortunately, it turns out that the lessons of the Korean peninsula have not yet entirely played themselves out. And if the lessons thus far have taught us anything, it is that our priorities should not only include the much-glorified ""rising"" threat of Iraq to U.S. interests, but also the threat of North Korea that already towers over the whole world.
