North Korea's Nukes

So aWol (and his neocon buddies) were so concerned that Iraq was developing, could develop, might want to develop nuclear weapons that we had to attack before we learned the hard way. Remember the "mushroom cloud" references?

Yet, despite the fact that analysts (and perhaps operatives, too) say that it is not likely that North Korea has reprocessed the 8,000 + spent fuel rods into weapons grade plutonium, BushCo. are oddly silent on the issue. In fact, some of the same administration hawks who were absolutely certain that the available intelligence showed Iraq was perilously close to having "the bomb," are being very cautious about the intelligence about North Korea.

Maybe they've learned a lesson in humility before incomplete intelligence. Maybe the neocon playbook never included the DPRK and they are at a loss as to what to do.

Whatever the reason, with aWol himself going to Bangkok next week for an Asian summit, you'd think the hawks would be beating the drums over this one. Yet they are strangely silent. Whether Kim Jong Il intends to build more bombs (or has built, some estimates are the latest round of reprocessing has given him up to eight weapons) or to sell weapons grade materials on the black market, this is very scary stuff.

North Korea should scare us all as Iraq never could. Not only is Kim a monomaniacal sociopath, but the million plus soldiers under his command are as fanatical as they come. There is no doubt that should Kim give the order, they would not only march on Seoul, but they would launch whatever nuclear or biological weapons they have.

BushCo has started to come around in some sense, they are at least making noises like they will talk with North Korea. But there are no concrete signs from this administration that they are taking this situation seriously, or, in fact, that they have any idea just what to do about it.