Word: pyongyang
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...right now is Iraq, and the uphill battle to convince the international community that force may be the only way to disarm Saddam Hussein. It's not only that North Korea potentially throws up a major distraction; it's also that the marked differences in the U.S. response to Pyongyang and to Baghdad over weapons of mass destruction is being seized upon by some skeptics to strengthen their case against military action in Iraq. Administration officials have responded in mute tones to the brazen declaration of nuclear ambitions by an "Axis of Evil" state - they're expressing concern and consulting...
...capability to flatten most of Seoul in a matter of minutes. Analysts suggest that an all-out war along the Korean frontier could cost a million lives on both sides. And those in the frontline - the South Koreans and Japanese - have stressed they have no desire for confrontation with Pyongyang...
...countering Iraq-skeptics by saying that the North Korean equation shows precisely why action is needed to prevent Saddam acquiring nuclear weapons. The key difference between North Korea and Iraq, according to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, is that "effective international pressure may have an effect on North Korea." Pyongyang's posture - as erratic and obtuse as it may be - has been driven primarily by the need to end its international isolation. Economic stasis and mass starvation have made the archaic Stalinist regime centered on the personality cult of its "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il desperate not only for trade...
...cash, North Korea had turned its missile industry into a prime foreign exchange earner in the 1990s by exporting medium-range missiles to Iran, Syria and Pakistan. (U.S. intelligence believes, according to the New York Times, that Islamabad paid for its purchases by delivering nuclear-weapons technology to Pyongyang.) Even if North Korea's own strategic posture was essentially defense of the Dear Leader's realm, its export program raised the danger of the viral spread of dangerous weapons...
...declaring the 1994 treaty void and giving Washington an irrefutable case to insist on tough verification procedures in any future agreements, the North Koreans may actually have done the Bush Administration a favor. After all, Pyongyang still desperately needs aid, trade and investment from the U.S. and its allies, and it can't afford to be isolated - hence Condoleezza Rice's confidence in the power of international pressure over North Korea. The Dear Leader needs a new agreement, first and foremost with Washington. And in light of the latest revelations, such an agreement would certainly incorporate some of the tough...