Norks and Ayatollahs on similar diplomatic front

NY Times:

For years North Korea has supplied Iran with missile technology, and late last year the White House told American intelligence agencies to evaluate the danger that the North Koreans might be tempted to sell their nuclear expertise — or a bomb's worth of plutonium — to the Iranians.

But in the past few days, it has become clear that the two countries are also pursuing similar diplomatic strategies. North Korea's threat to launch a long-range ballistic missile seems a clear echo of Iran's recent strategy of resuming production of nuclear fuel. Iran was aiming to extract concessions from the Bush administration, and it has already won some modest diplomatic gains.

But for North Korea, both the power and the risks of a move carried out in full view of commercial and spy satellites have now become evident. Either because of bad weather or sudden political indecision in the capital, Pyongyang, the missile has stayed on the launching pad.

The very public act of rolling out a new missile — one that might prove capable of hitting the United States, or, alternatively, might fall into the Pacific — has succeeded in getting the world to focus on North Korea. That must be seen as progress for the North, after months in which Iran's nuclear program — far less developed than North Korea's — has grabbed all the headlines.

But the delay, along with warnings from nations around the world about what might happen if North Korea presses the button, has led some to speculate that Kim Jong Il, the country's reclusive leader, may be reconsidering his options. His last missile test, over Japan in 1998, led the Clinton administration into negotiations and a mild relaxation of penalties against the country. But Bush administration officials and Asian diplomats say it is unlikely that North Korea can now extract similar concessions. "What they are doing right now is very calculated," said Gary Samore, who directed the nonproliferation office of the National Security Council under President Clinton. "They probably view the American offer to talk to Iran last month as an admission of weakness."

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The North Koreans know the Iranians, and their weapons programs, intimately. Iran's missiles are based on the North Korean Rodong, a medium-range missile. North Korean engineers are often sighted at Iranian facilities. "It is widely believed that the North Koreans have offered to sell Taepodong 1 and 2 to Iran, and if the thing works, it might make the Iranians more interested in buying more than blueprints," Mr. Samore said. "This whole test could be good for North Korean sales." Taepodong missiles have a much longer range than the Rodong and are capable of carrying larger payloads.

That has made the North Korea-Iran trading routes a prime target of the administration's Proliferation Security Initiative, and American officials say they foiled an Iranian effort to load one of its cargo planes on North Korean soil.

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What is this? Haven't liberals been saying for years there is no axis of evil between these two countries? Are they admitting they have been wrong all along? Liberals never concede the obvious, but there is clearly cooperation between these two countries that are at war with the US. If either of these countries thought they could destroy the US they would. We need to work harder on destroying both these regimes.