Nuclear proliferation is being caused by literally every nuclear power in the world in one way or the other. Today North Korea and Iran are seen by USA and its allies as posing threat to them and world peace. But nuclear ambitions of these two powers are admitted by the UNSC as normal. USA has repeatedly warned against nuclear proliferation and got UNSC sanctions slapped on both, but they stuck to their guns firmly. All nuclear states are equally posing threat to the world security and peace. While Israel and allies say Iran’s nuclear facility would threaten their existence, there are unconcerned about their own nukes or North Korea.

The communist regime in Pyongyang considers USA, which supports South Korea, a deadly threat to its existence. North Korea's first nuclear test, in October 2006, sent out danger signals to the western world. North Korea warned of an intercontinental ballistic missile test in anger over UNSC punishment for what Pyongyang said was a satellite launch recently on April 5. Pyongyang blasted atomic devices repeatedly and fired missiles, considered by South Korea as threatening to its security.  At the time of the first test, the common liberal lament was that Kim Jong Il was belligerent only because President Bush had eschewed diplomacy in favor of tough rhetoric, like naming Pyongyang to the "axis of evil." Right after North Korea's first nuclear test, in 2006, Senator Bob Menendez explained that the event "illustrates just how much the Bush Administration's incompetence has endangered our nation."

In February 2007, the six parties (United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia) agreed to a statement in which North Korea promised to shut down and seal its nuclear reactor and bring in inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor compliance. As part of the deal, the North promised to provide a complete list of its nuclear programs within 60 days. But Kim's minions refused to provide the list until the U.S. released $25 million in North Korean assets deposited at the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia, which had been sanctioned under the Patriot Act for money laundering and counterfeiting.

Recently, North Korea test fired missiles again. The USA had observed "above average activity" in the past 24 hours at a site in North Korea that has previously been used to test fire long-range missiles. Korean Peninsula has become a nuclear threat spot again now with the intesifyng lggying for actions to stop North Korea from going nuclear. South Korea's Defense Ministry condemned the action and also said it had seen the number of Chinese fishing boats near the peninsula in the Yellow Sea drop sharply in recent days and is watching the North's activities for indications of aggression. South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said “North Korea perhaps to this point may have mistakenly believed that it could be perhaps rewarded for its wrong behaviors," Lee told reporters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Gates feels North Korea's years long use of scare tactics as a bargaining chip to secure aid and other concessions — only to later renege on promises — has worn thin the patience of five nations negotiating with Pyongyang. "They create a crisis and the rest of us pay the price to return to the status quo ante," Gates told the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual meeting of defense and security officials, adding, "As the expression goes in the USA, I'm tired of buying the same horse twice." The sharp statements were echoed by the South Korean defense minister and even China — North Korea’s strongest ally. Taken together, they reflect fears throughout the region that last week's nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang could spiral out of control and lead to fighting.

Gates warned North Korea against secretly selling its weapons technology to other rogue nations, saying the U.S. "will not stand idly by." Gates said North Korea was not a direct military threat now but said sanctions that bring home "real pain" were needed against Pyongyang. "If the North Koreans continue on a path they are on, I think the consequences for stability in the region are significant and I think it poses the potential for some kind of an arms race in this region," Gates, however, does not plan to build up more American troops in the region.

In New York, the USA and Japan circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution to key members, condemning the claimed nuclear test and demanding strict enforcement of sanctions imposed after the North's first atomic test in October 2006. Additionally, the U.N. Security Council is drafting financial and military sanctions against North Korea as punishment for the weapons testing. Similar sanctions approved after Pyongyang’s 2006 atomic test have been only sporadically enforced, and largely ignored by China and Russia. Later, at the first-ever meeting among defense chiefs from the USA, Japan and South Korea, Gates asked his counterparts to begin considering other steps against Pyongyang should the regime continue to escalate is nuclear program. The three military leaders did not discuss specific potential actions.

II

UNSC led by the USA has been tryng to make North Korea stop its nuclear activities, but so far failed to acheve the goal. In early 2003 multilateral talks were proposed to be held among the six most relevant parties aimed at reaching a settlement through diplomatic means. North Korea initially opposed such a process, maintaining that the nuclear dispute was purely a bilateral matter between themselves and the United States. However, under pressure from its neighbors and with the active involvement of China, North Korea agreed to preliminary three-party talks with China and the United States in Beijing in April 2003. After this meeting, North Korea agreed to six-party talks, between the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. The fifth round of talks held on2007 February 8, concluded with a landmark action-for-action agreement. However, North Korea ignored its end-of-year deadline for producing its nuclear declaration. When it did finally produce one, six months later, it included nothing about its uranium nuclear program. The North did publicly destroy the cooling tower of its reactor at Yongbyon just for the TV cameras, but it balked at any credible verification process. Goodwill by all sides has led to the US unfreezing all of the North Korean assets on 2007 March 19. As of 2008 October 11, North Korea has agreed to all U.S. nuclear inspection demands and the Bush administration responded by removing the communist country from a terrorism blacklist. 

It seems the U.S. had continued to fulfill its commitments under the 1994 Agreed Framework, including fuel shipments and the building of "civilian" nuclear reactors, until the North admitted it was violating that framework in late 2002. By 2006 the Bush Administration had participated in multiple rounds of six-party nuclear talks, or that it had promised to normalize relations with the North. Bush announced last June that he was lifting restrictions on the North under the Trading With the Enemy Act. He also removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. However, Bush also always used aggressive posture to warn North Korea.

Like Israel, North Korea does not keep its promises made to the international community and keeps shifting its position. North Korea promised again to provide a complete nuclear report, this time by the end of the year. South Korea proposed a "South-North economic community"; and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pledged to improve relations despite unresolved issues regarding Japanese citizens abducted by the North. in September 2007 Israel bombed a Syrian nuclear facility that U.S. and Israeli intelligence believe was supplied by North Korea. Pyongyang denied any role, and the U.S. kept its diplomacy active. 

III

Tensions keep rising in Korean Peninsula intermittently as the two Koreas have fought two deadly naval clashes on their disputed maritime border in the past 10 years and the North has warned another could happen. Increasingly belligerent North Korea has warned of war, saying it was no longer bound by an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and threatened further provocations in response to U.N. Security Council censure. Gates said the Obama administration would hold North Korea "fully accountable" if it transferred any nuclear material outside its borders. The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the USA and allies. And “we would hold North Korea fully accountable for the consequences of such action." The statement seemed to harden and broaden the Obama administration's stand on North Korea’s recent series of provocations from a regional security issue to a global proliferation threat.

Regional powers are waiting to see what the North might do next after it conducted a nuclear test last month. South Korea is on alert on the assessment Pyongyang may make provocative moves using conventional weapons at their heavily armed border. North Korea is likely to respond heatedly to whatever actions the U.S. and allies take to stem the weapons threat. North Korea’s responses to date have been so far above and beyond the normal tit-for-tat, they can again escalate. North Korea will use any response as a provocation. Leaders are consistent and are resolutely opposed to nuclear proliferation; they want the Korean peninsula should move toward denuclearization. The Obama administration announced it would dispatch a delegation to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and possibly Moscow over the next week to discuss how to respond to North Korea.

Western diplomats said permanent Security Council members Russia and China have agreed in principle that North Korea should be sanctioned for its nuclear test, but it was not clear what kind of penalties they would support. Both are generally reluctant to approve sanctions. U.S. officials have urged China to pressure North Korea to step back from nuclear brinkmanship and return to stalled disarmament talks. But many Chinese analysts say Washington overstates Beijing’s sway over Pyongyang, as well as their government's willingness to use that influence.

USA might consider tougher sanctions against North Korea, noting that past efforts to cajole the reclusive regime into scrapping its nuclear weapons program have only emboldened it. In a speech to an Asian defense conference in Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the threat from North Korea, which this week detonated a nuclear device and launched a series of missiles, could trigger an arms race in Asia. He said that the United States would not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea and sternly warned it against transferring any nuclear material. Pyongyang was preparing to move an intercontinental ballistic missile from a factory near the capital to a launch site on the east coast. "We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region or on us," Gates said. "We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state." Preparations to move an ICBM from the Saneum Weapons Research Center near Pyongyang by train have been captured by U.S. spy satellites.

Global safety is the chief concern of every nation. Nuclear proliferation threat cannot be used against any single or a group of nations disliked by the big nuclear regimes in the world.. The rule should be applied symmetrically to all nations, not to target Iran and North Korea, even if the intention is to let them have their own in a hidden manner. It is an old funny joke to say that Nukes in USA, Israel, France and India are good but if possessed by Russia, China, Iran or Pakistan are too bad. If the key argument is about “democracies” are trustworthy, and others, it is again a big joke- an American joke in Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan. India a democracy also is engaged in nuclear proliferation activities in a sustained manner and the Americans could do precious little to stop it.

For decades all the top nuclear proliferators have tried tricks to restrict and reduce nukes and proliferation, but ended in increasing the trends and making the world more dangerous with their selective attacks. Now USA wants to remove nukes form Pakistan as a futile exercise because India would never part with their nukes or technology, their chief wealth. And thence all state terrorism in Pakistan create an illusion of destabilization in Pakistan to enable USA to shift nukes form their soil.

The Obama Administration made clear it was ready to pursue a diplomatic approach on international issues rather than wars. But then Kim Jong Il decided to return to his familiar script, raising the ante by launching a ballistic missile in April, expelling U.N. inspectors, boycotting the six-party talks and then detonating a second bomb last week. North Korean leader Kim must figure President Obama would soon come calling with his own "carrots" in return for more empty disarmament promises. That's what the U.S. has always done before.

World will not trust if the USA claims to be the chief custodian of all nukes and it would secure the world form nuclear disasters, chiefly because so far only the USA successfully fired the nukes  on humanity in Japan. There is just one way. Denuclearization pawing way for reliable total disarmament by the entire world simultaneously in a verifiable manner alone can salvage the global situation now. President Obama could consider authentic and reliable ways and means for complete denuclearization. Just by selectively stopping North Korea or Iran, the issue of nuclear proliferation cannot be dealt with satisfactorily, nor can nukes’ danger be wiped out of the earth and space. Universal application of the problem could produce some result, however.   

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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

Independent Researcher in World Affairs,

The only Indian to have gone through entire India, a fraud and terror nation,
South Asia.