With evidence appearing that not only places Iran as a spectator at recent North Korean nuke test but also probably as a financier of the project, it brought to mind a possibility I had wondered about a few years ago - namely, that in order to forestall preemptive Israeli attack on its nuclear program Iran brings in a bomb from elsewhere, detonates it as if they were testing a device they had developed themselves, and then says to israel “ok, call off the dogs, we’ve already got thing you don’t want us to have”.
Sure, there’s all kinds of problems with that scenario - still, not an impossibility I’d think - and it makes clear something that cannot be denied: any nuclear device and delivery system thereof that North Korea develops is perforce a technology that belongs to whomever wants it and can get access to it - Iran wants it and apparently they have access of a sort - it’s no longer just Lil’ Kim’s bomb.
Which is why I’ve always argued that we should be considering very seriously the option of, when NK gets its crazy on and shoots off a rocket, blowing that sucker out of the sky. To me it’s a very dangerous game allowing these guys to perfect this technology so that they can constantly up the ante - sure, intervention is full of dangers too - but allowing this constant escalation of threats is highly problematic, eventually it acquires a momentum and logic all its own and forces you into a rather unpleasant corner: intervene into a now nuclearized cesspool, or let the proliferation happen.
