Korean tensions again shot up Tuesday, April 9, with Pyongyang’s warning of a ballistic missile firing Wednesday, April 10 toward the Pacific and advice to foreigners in the South to evacuate: “We do not wish harm on foreigners in the South should there be a war,” said the statement.
Last week, foreign embassies were informed that North Korea would not guarantee the safety of their staffs after April 10.
Japan has deployed Patriot missile interceptors around its defense ministry headquarters in Tokyo and other key facilities including Okinawa, in the wake of North Korea’s move last week of two intermediate- missiles to its eastern coast, placing Japan, South Korea and the US bases at Guam within range.
In Tehran, meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled Tuesday two additional uranium-processing facilities at Ardakan in the central province of Yazd. This was announced with the official disclosure by Iranian state TV of uranium mines operating in the town of Saghand, 120 kilometers from Ardakan, which are reported to have an estimated output of 60 tons of yellowcake for use in the uranium enrichment process.
In case this show of defiance was lost on the West, Tehran is now threatening to follow in the footsteps of its North Korean partner and withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in the wake of the failure of the latest negotiations between the Islamic regime and world powers (April 5-6) in Kazakhstan.
The meeting broke up without a date for resumption after Tehran refused outright to curb its enrichment program in exchange of the partial easing of sanctions, demanding that world powers acknowledge the Islamic Republic’s right to enrich uranium under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
To underline this refusal, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security, came out with this argument: There is no reason for Iran to be in compliance with the NPT and IAEA regulations when the United States and European countries “disregard its articles such as article 6 [mandating the reduction of nuclear weapons] and article 4 [Iran’s nuclear rights].” Speaking to the Fars News Agency (run by the Revolutionary Guards), Boroujerdi concluded: “Therefore, there is no reason for Iran to remain a NPT member…”
Its exit would mean that the nuclear watchdog would no longer have monitoring access to Iran’s known nuclear sites and like North Korea, which expelled the inspectors, could carry on enriching uranium and developing its nuclear weapons program without international oversight.
These steps, along with Pyongyang’s restart of its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon last week, will give the nuclear collaboration with Iran and North Korea a further boost.
However, neither Washington or Jerusalem appear to show any inclination to rein in either North Korea, Iran or the dangerous ties between them. In Jerusalem, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that world powers would pursue further talks with Iran to resolve their nuclear dispute, but stressed that the process could not go on forever – which is exactly what President Barack Obama said a year ago.
WarSclerotic 
April 9, 2013 at 6:29 PM
A missile to nowhere, this is the policy of those rogue states North Korea and Iran. A new nuclear facility for the Iranians and a nuclear experiment for North Korea, this will give’em some space from home pressure. The Iranians have some elections and economical issues to resolve and the young leader of the North Korea has some issues with the army while his advisors decided that an international crisis will resolve all those domestic problems. Long story short, we don’t have to relate to seriously to North Korea yelling ; the Iranians are a different story, finally the IDF will take care of it.
April 9, 2013 at 6:42 PM
The whole farce is now coming to an end.
War is now inevitable.
The obavez regime is acting utterly ridiculous.
Yeah, they want to pursue further talks.
Are they stupid or insane? Or are they just evil?
It makes me angry that such morons dictate world policy.
April 9, 2013 at 11:31 PM
“U.S. policy for dealing with the North Korean situation is inadequate because it focuses on North Korea in isolation as a rogue state, and naively seeks help from the Russians and Chinese to solve the problem. The North Korea situation and any future nuclear incident, wherever it occurs, must be seen against the background of Sino-Soviet ‘convergence’ strategy: the interaction of Russian and Chinese policy and the moves they make to derive strategic gains from critical situations should be closely studied.”
– KGB Defector Major Anatoliy Golitsyn, “The Perestroika Deception”, March 1989, p. 46.
April 11, 2013 at 7:39 AM
Whilst I’ve read all the e-mailed articles, I’ve rarely looked for comments, so I apologise if this has been covered.
(Joseph, is there any way to receive e-mail updates to comments posted?)
Has anybody else wondered if Kim Jong-un has converted to Twelver?
To Artaxes, I say, war is always inevitable.
To defencetoday, I say, it’s all the BRICS countries that should be looked at. Meanwhile, the US and UK are becoming police states.
April 11, 2013 at 5:09 PM
Sometimes war can be avoided simply by showing your adversary that you have the stregth to crush him and by showing that you are willing to do so. Not exactly what obavez has been doing for the past five years.
April 13, 2013 at 10:59 AM
I must apologise for my delay in responding, whilst contemplating my reply, an odd train of thought lead me to learn about what I now know as Moshiach. Still much reading and contemplation of Chabad.org to do.
I used the word “war” to denote the general concept of war, not the specificality of an event. That being said, it should be noted, that an act of war, no matter how overt or covert, still creates a momentary reality of war.
Why have you not said anything about my Kim Jong-un question?
April 13, 2013 at 5:57 PM
Because of human nature war as a general phenomenon will always be with us. In that sense war is always unavoidable.
The wise statesman prefers to achieve his goals without war.
The wise statesman acts also decisively if war is the only rational option.
Appeasement can lead to more war and more death.
Regarding your question about Kim being a twelver I prefered to say nothing because I know nothing about it.
My opinion is that he is not a Twelver.and thereby a Muslim.
There is nothing to suggest that.