North Korea: Talks collapse

Liberals are fond of questioning timing. Here’s some timing that might give the entire left a collective aneurysm, if they bothered to question it.

At the very same moment that Hamas and Hezbollah, terrorist groups that ultimately answer to Iran, egg on war with Israel, which Iran’s president has threatened to annihilate a few times over the past few months, North Korea is creating major turbulence on the other end of the world that just happens to involve a couple of US allies. North Korea had Iranian scientists on hand for its July 4 missile tests, indicating that Pyongyang never had any intention of doing anything other than launching those missiles–including the big Taepodong-2–knowing full well what the international reaction would be. The Iranian reaction was apparently more important.

I’m not stating as known fact that all of this is related–I’m not Josh Marshall–but the timing of it all is very interesting: The two surviving members of the axis of evil, both finding a way to stir up very serious trouble in their favored ways for close US allies at pretty much the same time.

For Iran’s part, it is ramping up the threat of regional war as Israel moves to re-secure its borders and hunt for its abducted soldiers. Those soldiers were abducted by terrorists that answer to Iran.

For North Korea’s part, it has stormed out of talks with the South after the South rejected Pyongyang’s absurd offer to “protect” it.

From what? The greatest threat to South Korea, a close US ally, is North Korea.

Efforts to bring North Korea back to disarmament talks were in tatters on Thursday as Pyongyang stormed out of a meeting with the South and a senior U.S. diplomat left the region after a week of shuttle diplomacy.

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The North Koreans demanded that the South stop joint military drills with the United States due next year, saying it was ready to protect South Korea with its 1.2-million-strong armed forces.

That provoked an unusually biting reply from South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok that echoed the rhetoric of the years before Seoul’s determined policy of rapprochement.

“Who in the South asked you to protect our safety?” Lee told Kwon on Tuesday, according to a South Korean official. “It would help our safety for the North not to fire missiles or develop a nuclear program.”

Indeed it would.

As it would help reduce Israel’s need to respond with force if Iran would call off its terrorists. Which it has no intention of doing.

Iran buys North Korean missile tech, the nuclear programs of both countries are connected by the AQ Khan network, and now we have Iran and North Korea ramping up the threat of war against key US allies at the very same time.

Question the timing.

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