The nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsular has been arranged by Russia (with the secret connivance of China). Just as the Russians trained hundreds of Iranian nuclear scientists, and gave Iran high-tech nuclear equipment, the North Koreans could not have achieved their entry into the nuclear club without foreign assistance. North Korean scientists are not more gifted, more advanced or more knowledgeable than Iranians. North Korea is smaller than the state of Mississippi with a gross domestic product of $40 billion, and no oil revenue. How could such a country afford a nuclear weapons program of its own? According to the CIA Fact Book, North Korea is "one of the world's most centrally planned and isolated economies ... [with] desperate economic conditions. Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of years of underinvestment and shortages of spare parts. Industrial power and output have declined in parallel."
If it were not for gifts of food and fertilizer from its sworn enemies (South Korea and the United States), hundreds of thousands of North Koreans would have starved to death. Here again, the socialist style in agriculture has brought malnourishment and hunger to millions. At the same time, the country prepares for the "final" battle against capitalism. Under communism, starvation and war preparations go hand-in-hand. The CIA Fact Book explains: "Large-scale military spending eats up resources needed for investment and civilian consumption."
North Korea's push for nuclear weapons is part of a larger pattern of belligerence that involves the emergence of a worldwide anti-American coalition, including Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, South Africa and Vietnam (to name a few). This coalition has been encouraged and supported by Russia and China, and it aims at nothing less than the elimination of the United States as a major world power. The creation of new nuclear centers in Tehran and Pyongyang is part of a larger strategy that promises to insulate Moscow and Beijing with a further layer of credible deniability in the event nuclear weapons are used by terrorists against the United States or its allies. Years ago, if a nuclear bomb had flattened New York or Washington everyone would expect an American retaliatory strike against Russia. A present-day nuclear attack on an American city would almost certainly be attributed to Arab terrorists, even if the weapon itself could be traced to Russia or one of the "former" Soviet republics.
Diplomats now hope to resolve the Korean nuclear crisis with "talks" and economic pressure. But North Korean representatives are the world's most exasperating negotiators, and the North Koreans have already endured decades of economic hardship. A previous Korean nuclear crisis was supposedly resolved to everyone's satisfaction more than a decade ago, and now the Americans find themselves duped again. Even as Pyongyang pretended to abide by its previous nuclear agreements, in December 1998, the North Korean media bragged, "The United States will [soon] be reduced to ashes and will no longer exist...." North Korean headlines from the first week of 1999 proclaimed that, "U.S. Imperialist Aggressors Will Be Unable to Avoid Annihilating Strikes." Another North Korean source stated that the Americans would be wiped "from this planet for good." At the beginning of the current round of threats (including a long term military buildup), the North Korean government has repeatedly called on its citizens "to love rifles, earnestly learn military affairs and turn the whole country into an impregnable fortress."
Today, nearly eight years later, as al Qaeda's nuclear terror squad allegedly prepares its assault, the North Koreans are still talking about America's imminent destruction. What do they know that we don't? The small handful of weapons possessed by minor nuclear powers hardly destroy a large country like the United States; but one need only consider the effects of panic in the event of a successful terrorist strike. The U.S. economy would crumble, paralyzed with fear. You might then use the dollar to wallpaper bathroom stalls, as one Russian analyst suggested.
The destruction of America (or death to America) is basic to both North Korean communist and Iranian Islamist rhetoric. It is in this context that we must consider both countries' eagerness to acquire nuclear weapons. Defectors from the communist bloc have long alleged the existence of a long-range strategy for taking down the United States. As it is a certainty that Russia has assisted the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, it is a certainty that Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons enter into Russia's long term strategic plans. Therefore, Moscow's verbal condemnation of North Korea's nuclear program is mere lip service meant to reassure the Bush administration. Similarly, Beijing's call for "punitive actions" against the tiny North Korean economy cannot be taken seriously.
There is one more thing to consider, one more angle that deserves our attention. According to U.S. intelligence, North Korea has had nuclear weapons for more than five years. Why do they conduct a nuclear test now? It is probable that the timing of the test was meant to coincide with the rise of a new "fighting" Japanese prime minister. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has championed Japanese rearmament, warning his people about North Korea's nuclear ambitions. It may be counter-intuitive that North Korea would purposely drive the Japanese into rearmament with a nuclear test, and it may be counterintuitive that the Chinese (who still hate the Japanese) would allow such an event to result in a Japanese military buildup. But consider the path that Shinzo Abe must now follow to realize his dream: first, he must go to Beijing and win Chinese approval of his plans; second, the Chinese may well approve Japanese rearmament with certain stipulations, namely, that China will build many of Japans new weapons and that new factories should be built (with Japanese money) inside China.
