Earlier this month, South Korea's intelligence officials reported a mushroom-shaped plume over North Korea. Pyongyang attributed the blast to their hydroelectric dam project (along with other possible explanations).
Iran refused to suspend its own nuclear work on uranium if its case was sent to the U.N. Security Council, and Tehran stuck with its story that its uranium enrichment efforts are solely for generating electricity.
While we assure ourselves that neither of these countries bears a real threat to the rest of the world, the histories of both states are unsettling. Which leads me to believe in only one inevitable fact: We need to watch our backs.
Last Saturday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- atomic watchdogs for the United Nations -- ordered that Iran halt its uranium enrichment program by Nov. 25. At the same time, the Agence France-Presse Wire reported that Iran is testing its long-range missile capability for supposed defense purposes.
The official report from Iran's state-controlled media relays that the testing exercises are in the interest of maintaining the "spirit of jihad (holy war) and of defense." Yet AFP also reported that a Shahab-3 missile has been displayed with a banner reading, "Israel should be wiped off the map." Defense, eh?
This is after Iran signed a Non-Proliferation Treaty late in 2003, but has yet to ratify the treaty under the desired provisions of the IAEA, which includes granting IAEA freer access to all nuclear facilities -- declared or undeclared. This begs the question: If you've got nothing to hide, then what's the problem?
Maybe this is our cue to turn to North Korea. While skeptics argue that North Korea has run a nuclear weapons program for a decade and nothing has transpired, I'm not about to hold my breath. In 1994, the United States, under President Clinton, urged North Korea to allow full weapons inspections and halt its production of nuclear weapons in exchange for fuel oil and two power-generating reactors (the non-threatening kind).
Yet the 1994 Agreed Framework fell through, leaving the rest of the world to nervously linger around a country whose secret interests encompass unimaginable threats.
In 1997, the United States began sending humanitarian aid to North Korea after severe floods wiped out most of their farmlands, resulting in heavy food shortage and an unstable economy. Seven years and more than $800 million later, still no compliance from Pyongyang.
In the meantime, the Bush administration has categorized North Korea as part of terrorism's "Axis of Evil" and pointed fingers at the Clinton administration for allowing them there. Back in February, Bush proposed creating a coalition of countries leading in nuclear exports to guarantee "reliable access" of nuclear fuel to other countries.
The plan certainly would aid the current situation; it would prevent countries like Iran from attempting to convert more than 40 tons of raw uranium into uranium hexafluoride and be underway for nuclear bomb capability. But the coalition has yet to be implemented.
The North Korean situation is beyond our control; let's not let the present Iranian situation go the same route. One could only speculate on the psychological tendencies of leader Kim Jung-Il and the motives behind a country with generally closed doors to the rest of the world. Unstable and unpredictable regimes are hotbeds for terrorist support, and the spreading of terrorism today is practically undeniable.
While Washington plays politics and the blame game, and the rest of the world appeases these countries, giving them more and more time to develop nuclear weapon capability, we certainly aren't getting any safer.
Lily Yan is a journalism and political science junior. Reach her at Lily7174@msn.com.
