Misunderestimating North Korea

In 2007, an Israeli preemptive strike destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor modeled after the Yongbyon reactor based in North Korea. The dangers of the nexus between nuclear weapons, rogue regimes and terrorist-supporting states outlined by President George W. Bush in his famous 2002 State of the Union address very nearly burst out of the hypothetical and became reality. Weapons trade between North Korea and Islamist or anti-American regimes was nothing new (the Duelfer Report listed details of North Korea-Saddam missile ties). Today, the North Koreans continue selling or sharing the goods of their apocalyptic market: Kim's beloved nuclear program is believed to be sharing technology with the Iranian program, which is spread throughout the Islamic Republic, making it a far more difficult target for any nation to eliminate in an Osirak or Syrian fashion.

Kim Jong-il, more a warden of a concentration camp than the leader of a nation-state, has managed to do quite a bit to rock the boat for the Obama Administration. The missile test may have failed, but the President's initiative to rid the world of nuclear weapons seemed in light of the launch to be -- as Charles Krauthammer put it -- "childish." Judging by the collective shrugging of the Security Council on the issue, most of the world is perfectly at ease to allow rogue regimes like North Korea -- no matter how disturbing their ties may be with Syria or militant Iran -- to keep refining their nuclear weapons' programs; let alone the rest of the world's nations (most of whom are, fortunately, saner). The United Nations refused to even admit they were "concerned" with the missile test.

In order for America to lead the world on this issue, rather than let the world simply turn over and fall back asleep, the President of the United States must appear less of a starry-eyed idealist intent on proclaiming "disarmament in our time" and more willing to devote political capital to the pressing issue of rogue states coordinating their development of the world's most dangerous weapons. We cannot ignore this event, as Russia and China want, or simply offer more goodies to North Korea's citizen-prisoners in an effort to make this all just go away.

After all, let's face it: in Pyongyang, the world has already permitted one fanatical regime to obtain nuclear weapons, transfer them to terrorist-supporting states, and defy the world without the world deigning to show "concern" at illegal tests of missiles that could someday be capable of carrying WMD. If the United States does not seek to aggressively respond to North Korea's latest provocation; what reason is there to stop anyone, anywhere from caring when Tehran test-detonates their first bomb in, say, 2010?

And that clear and present danger, is the true danger of simply dismissing North Korea's latest outrage.