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Lessons Taught by North Korea Charles R. Smith According to highly placed intelligence sources, Iran had an observer team present at the North Korean nuclear test.
The presence of Iranian nuclear and military engineers at the test indicates that Tehran is closer to North Korea than previously thought. U.S. officials are well aware that Iran has been funding North Korean weapons development.
The Iranians are equipped with a variant of the North Korean No-Dong long range missile, called the Shahab-3. Iran is also known to be working with North Korea on the development of long range cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
However, the unspoken link to both Iran and North Korea is China — the cross-roads between funding and technology. North Korea is taking payments for its weapons sales and development for Iran through Chinese banks. In turn, most of the technology being sold by North Korea to Iran was obtained from China.
China serves as a major source of weapons technology for North Korea. The North Korean No-Dong missiles are based on Chinese technology passed by Beijing to Pyongyang. The latest variant of the Iranian No-dong, the Shahab-3, is also equipped with a Chinese designed upper-stage and re-entry vehicle bus.
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The Chinese technology merged into the Shahab-3 allows for the more accurate delivery of the warhead, a characteristic required for a nuclear tipped missile.
The new Iranian warhead design is considered nuclear capable, enabling the Shahab-3 missile to carrying atomic bombs that can fuse during re-entry and air burst at accurate altitudes above its intended target. Dangerous Middleman On the financial side of the equation, China is heavily involved as the banking middleman between North Korea and Iran.
Chinese banks in Macau and even the government-backed Bank of China have been directly implicated in North Korean money laundering. The Chinese banks are the focus of an ongoing international law-enforcement effort to stem the tide of counterfeit money coming from North Korea.
The U.S. pressure on China and its banks to stop acting as a money laundering source for North Korean counterfeit $100 bills is at the center of Pyongyang's complaints.
The North Koreans currently refuse to return to the Chinese sponsored talks on its nuclear weapons development because of the U.S. led efforts to stop the counterfeit money.
However, what is not openly discussed is the fact that North Korea takes payment for its weapons sales to Iran through Chinese banks. China is, of course, charging a fee for its services and, in effect, is acting as the broker of the North Korean nuclear deal.
There are many in Washington, D.C., who have trusted Beijing to help take care of the "North Korean problem." In that effort, China has failed to curtail Kim. To continue to rely on Beijing is a failed policy.
These same diplomats and "why can't we all just get along" experts think that China has a vested interest in seeing a non-nuclear North Korea.
The fact is, China very much wants North Korea to become a nuclear power because this ties in with the "spread thin" strategy.
The United States, faced with a nuclear Iran and North Korea, will have to move forces into the Persian Gulf and Korean peninsula, leaving fewer forces to face China elsewhere.
Every carrier battle group protecting the Persian Gulf or South Korea is one less carrier battle group near Taiwan. Thus, it is in Beijing's best interests to sell as much weaponry as possible, including nuclear weapons technology, to Iran and North Korea.
China proliferated this technology nonstop to Pakistan during the Clinton years. We now know, thanks to Libya, that the Chinese made nuclear weapons designs available on the open market. The proof is the Chinese blueprints for a nuke that were obtained from Libya.
Failed Diplomacy The leftist policy toward North Korea is no less idiotic.
During the Clinton administration, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang in 2000, and extracted a promise from Kim that the DPRK would not pursue its nuclear weapons program if the U.S. would agree to pay for a nuclear energy facility for the DPRK.
So, what do you call a ruthless dictator who has purposely starved over 2 million of his citizens to death?
Albright called North Korean dictator Kim Jun Il a "charming" guy and a "good dancer." Albright based these well chosen comments on the one and only time she visited the ironclad dictatorship, when she danced the night away with the dictator in a gala ball-like atmosphere.
The Albright deal with the dancing Kim bombed even before it started. According to Albright, the deal did not signify a Clinton failure but it was unfortunate that the North Korean's "cheated" by continuing their nuclear weapons program. The U.S. had a chance to stop the North Koreans in the 1990s but failed. While Albright and her left-leaning friends are trying to pin the current crisis on George W. Bush, the fact is that her commander in chief, Bill Clinton, was too busy lying to the nation about sex to bother coming up with a rational policy on North Korea.
President Clinton tried several failed policies to appease North Korea. Clinton sent Jimmy Carter, who came back waving a paper and declaring peace in our time. Despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the one-term president held confused and hopeless negotiations with the DPRK that bought North Korea time to develop its weapons.
At one point Carter declared that North Korea had no nuclear weapons, and then a few months later he declared that North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons if the U.S. were to disarm itself.
WMD Lies When it became apparent that the Carter mission had failed, Clinton resorted to his old forte — lying to the nation. Clinton tried to ignore the North Korean threat, declaring that the tiny nation did not have long-range missiles and could not develop atomic weapons.
Clinton also had others lie to support his false assertions. In 1998, he twisted arms inside the intelligence community. The result was a politically motivated and thoroughly untrue CIA report that the DPRK could not deploy a missile capable of striking the U.S. for over a decade.
The Clinton policy toward North Korea came apart when his Pentagon chief of staff declared in the summer of 1998 that there was no indication of a missile threat from the DPRK. One week later, North Korea launched a Taepo Dong missile over Japan that landed off the coast of Alaska.
Of course, many like Madam Albright still believe that appeasement is the best policy to deal with the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il. Such a policy is not only silly but also dangerous.
The DPRK under Kim has engaged in some of the most heinous activities, including global proliferation of dangerous weapons and criminal activities including drugs, kidnapping and murder.
The only rational policy now is to develop a missile defense to stop North Korea, China and Iran. There is nothing wrong with having a strong defense to knock down incoming missiles. There is nothing wrong with trying to save millions of lives instead of leaving them naked to the aggression of a nuclear-armed dictator.
The nuclear test by Kim will certainly spur Japan, Korea and other Pacific states to seek more defenses. The test is certain to push other nations that are currently reluctant to join a missile defense with the U.S. It is said the best motivation is enlightened self-interest.
The mushroom cloud over North Korea is a great motivator.
Editor's note:
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