My last two posts highlighted the nuclear proliferation risk inherent in our attacking Libya. One of my favorite bloggers, Jeffrey Lewis (aka The Arms Control Wonk), added an insightful dimension in one of his posts. It’s short enough – and important enough – that I’ll repeat it here in its entirety:
Hey, remember when Bush Administration officials tried to convince Kim Jong Il that he could get the same denuclearization deal Bush gave Qadhafi? Yeah, the last couple of days might explain why Kim didn’t think it was such a great idea.
Apparently the DPRK is drawing the same lesson. From KCNA [North Korea’s Central News Agency]:
The present Libyan crisis teaches the international community a serious lesson.
It was fully exposed before the world that “Libya’s nuclear dismantlement” much touted by the U.S. in the past turned out to be a mode of aggression whereby the latter coaxed the former with such sweet words as “guarantee of security” and “improvement of relations” to disarm itself and then swallowed it up by force.
It proved once again the truth of history that peace can be preserved only when one builds up one¢s own strength as long as high-handed and arbitrary practices go on in the world.
The DPRK was quite just when it took the path of Songun and the military capacity for self-defence built up in this course serves as a very valuable deterrent for averting a war and defending peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
Every semester, I have my students read Rob Litwak’s Non-proliferation and the Dilemmas of Regime Change for a reason. [End of Jeffrey’s post]
Defusing the Nuclear Threat 