A PROGRAMME of covert action against nuclear and missile traffic to North Korea and Iran is to be intensified after last week’s missile tests by the North Korean regime.
Intelligence agencies, navies and air forces from at least 13 nations are quietly co-operating in a “secret war” against Pyongyang and Tehran.
It has so far involved interceptions of North Korean ships at sea, US agents prowling the waterfronts in Taiwan, multinational naval and air surveillance missions out of Singapore, investigators poring over the books of dubious banks in the former Portuguese colony of Macau and a fleet of planes and ships eavesdropping on the “hermit kingdom” in the waters north of Japan.
Few details filter out from western officials about the programme, which has operated since 2003, or about the American financial sanctions that accompany it.
But together they have tightened a noose around Kim Jong-il’s bankrupt, hungry nation.
“Diplomacy alone has not worked, military action is not on the table and so you’ll see a persistent increase in this kind of pressure,” said a senior western official.
The Proliferation Security Initiative seemed like this was what it was all about. Remember when ships in the alliance stopped a Yemeni ship with SCUDs? We let that go but I figured others were being swept up.
First of all, I don't think this is a bad leak like the Times leaks of secret operations. North Korea and Iran are aware of our intercepting their stuff, I'm sure.
What I want to know is why are we buying time? This is an undeclared war much like the undeclared war we fought against the Nazis in the Atlantic prior to Pearl Harbor.
I don't believe we are essentially waging war to put off the problem. I think we are buying time because we need time to do something. We want to slow down Iran until we overthrow the mullah regime in Tehran and we are slowing down North Korea to keep them from selling nukes and missiles to Iran so we can take down the mullahs. And we hope to strangle North Korea and cause their collapse.
I think we will destroy Iran's regime before President Bush leaves office. North Korea may be solved by then, but we are prepared to outlast them for years beyond this presidency, I think.
Unless Albright gets in there in 2009 to surrender all over again.
UPDATE: Austin Bay notes this article on our quiet campaign against North Korea:
The Treasury warned banks worldwide they should be careful about doing business with North Korea because of its illegal activities. This produced a serious disruption of North Korean financial transactions. For nine months, North Korean officials have refused to return to the six-party talks until the U.S. lifts its financial restrictions. Pyongyang is hurting, leading the North's erratic ruler, Kim Jong-il, to order the missile launches in a temper tantrum.
The last of the Stalinist regimes, North Korea is one giant gulag, locking its people in, keeping news of the world out, and oppressing its people to the point of starvation. A series of U.S. administrations failed to find a way either to deal with North Korea or cause its collapse. The Clinton administration sent food and fuel that helped sustain the odious regime. The Bush administration goal is to end it.
So many argue that we aren't doing enough against terrorists, but repeated leaks show we were quietly doing a lot--just not boasting to gain political gain. Many argue we aren't doing anything about North Korea. But we are waging a quiet war to collapse North Korea.
And since Iran is a bigger threat than North Korea, I have to believe that we are quietly working on this problem, too. We are not talking about it, I hope, to avoid telegraphing our actions against Tehran and giving them time to prepare.
We shall see what we are getting for the time we are buying.
