Submissiveness to North Korea is also the international model for Iran’s first nuclear test
Although the US Navy is purportedly on the ready to intercept any North Korean missiles directed at the Sea of Japan, according to a leak from Washington, the Obama administration let Pongyang’s test-launch of 7 missiles on July 4 go by with a mere verbal reproach: The launches were “not helpful,” said a State Department spokesman. “North Korea should refrain from actions that aggravate tensions and focus on de-nuclearization talks and the implementation of its commitments from the September 19, 2005 joint statement,” he said.
Beijing and Moscow agreed.
But North Korea has refused to go back to those talks and consistently shrugs off the sanctions the UN Security Council imposed unanimously after its long-range ballistic test in April and nuclear test in May.
The seven-missile barrage, deliberately launched Saturday, the Fourth of July, is reported by the Japanese news agency to consist of 6 Scud-type 500-km range missiles, capable of reaching most of South Korea.
The seventh appears to be a Nodong A, with a range of 1,000 km, which brings Japan within striking distance. Yet no official in Washington came forward to explain why the US Navy failed to intercept it.
debkafile‘s military sources report that the US, Europe – and even the Binyamin Netanyahu government – appear to have adopted the same strategy for North Korea and Iran. It is a combination of harsh oral rebukes coupled with a refusal to address North Korea’s violations and Iran’s race for a nuclear bomb in any practical way, even though sanctions are clearly of no effect at all.
A blind eye is equally turned to the close collaboration between Pyongyang and Tehran on their missile and nuclear development programs. The two rogue states are also clearly in tune on their nuclear diplomacy.
According to debkafile‘s intelligence sources, North Korea shared the results of its missile launches on Saturday with Iran, exactly as it did after its nuclear and ballistic tests. But neither Washington nor Jerusalem has raised a hand. Both nuclear transgressors are getting away with the gross, ongoing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and making a mockery of international law and UN resolutions.
This big-power weakness was conspicuous Friday, July 3, when the Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, shortly after his election to succeed Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei as director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, commented: “I don’t see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this.” He was answering a question about documents attesting to Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.
The US and Israel went to a lot of trouble to get Amano elected, hoping he would deal more strictly with Iran than the easy-going ElBaradai. But neither corrected his first statement.
The Japanese diplomat must have decided to keep his head down too after looking around and seeing the Obama administration still bidding for dialogue with an unresponsive Tehran and Pyongyang, and everyone else looking the other way from their brazen defiance of international norms.
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, instead of putting Amano right on the job he was expected to do, let his dismissive remark go unanswered, just as he let the actions of Iran’s nuclear collaborator, North Korea, go by without comment, notwithstanding its dangerous implications for Israel’s national security.