North Korea: Libya bombing makes nukes a necessity

North Korean radio has said that the bombing of Libya proves that North Korea must never give up its nuclear weapons, as Libya did in 2003.

A US State Department spokesman responded thus:

"Where they’re at today has absolutely no connection with them renouncing their nuclear program or nuclear weapons," said Mark Toner, a U.S. State Department spokesperson. “And in fact, it’s - frankly, it’s a good thing that they did, because if they had such weapons of mass destruction and they turn weapons so easily against their own people, then God help us."

Saddam Hussein did have WMDs. And he did use them against his own people. As Prof. Geras pointed out, the Libya intervention justifies the Iraq war.

But a broader point is that the war against Libya has given North Korea and Iran alike every incentive to keep their nuclear programs going at high speed, or even increase the pace. If Qaddafi had maintained his nuke program, would he have had a deliverable warhead by now? We can't know for sure. But had he announced say last year that he possessed even one atomic weapon atop a medium range ballistic missile, France and Italy would never have become so bellicose toward him a month ago.

Update, 3/26: Mark Steyn, as always, must be read:

Alternatively, suppose Gadhafi winds up hanging from a lamppost in his favorite party dress. If you're a Third World dictator, what lessons would you draw? Gadhafi was the thug who came in from the cold, the one who (in the wake of Saddam's fall) renounced his nuclear program and was supposedly rehabilitated in the chancelleries of the West. He was "a strong partner in the war on terrorism," according to U.S. diplomats. And what did Washington do? They overthrew him anyway.

The blood-soaked butcher next door in Sudan is the first head of state to be charged by the International Criminal Court with genocide, but nobody's planning on toppling him. Iran's going nuclear with impunity, but Obama sends fraternal greetings to the "Supreme Leader" of the "Islamic Republic." North Korea is more or less openly trading as the one-stop bargain-basement for all your nuke needs, and we're standing idly by. But the one cooperative dictator's getting million-dollar-a-pop cruise missiles lobbed in his tent all night long. If you were the average Third World loon, which role model makes most sense? Colonel Cooperative in Tripoli? Or Ayatollah Death-to-the-Great-Satan in Tehran? America is teaching the lesson that the best way to avoid the attentions of whimsical "liberal interventionists" is to get yourself an easily affordable nuclear program from Pyongyang, or anywhere else, as soon as possible.