Nukes and the U.S. Double Standard: How Dumb a Question?

The Chosun Ilbo asks why the United States is offering its limited support for nuclear programs in Iran and India, both of which are on the IAEA’s bad boy list, while refusing to allow North Korea any “peaceful” uses of nuclear energy. The headline suggests a code-yellow stupidity alert, but the article turns out to be a fair analysis, if already outdated by events. Confronting the question requires us to suspend all memory of events taking place in North Korea since 1992. It then requires us to break down the two comparisons for a methodical analysis.

First, I can’t honestly see how Iran represents substantially less of a nuclear danger than North Korea. Although the “limited” U.S. support is being done in the framework for complex diplomacy that the European Union has completely screwed up facilitated, I share the CI’s concerns. Of course, that issue may already be moot:

Iran resumed uranium conversion activities at its Isfahan nuclear facility Monday, a step that Europeans and the United States warned would prompt them to seek U.N. sanctions against the Tehran regime.

Work restarted at the conversion facility in central Iran quickly after inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog finished installing surveillance equipment and removing seals on equipment.

The move came as the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board of governors prepared to hold an emergency session Tuesday to consider whether to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose economic sanctions.

Germany, France and the United States have said they would likely recommend that the IAEA act against Iran if work at Isfahan resumed.

Incidentally, has anyone else noticed that nuclear tensions with Iran and North Korea always seem to flare up in tandem?

India, on the other hand, is a much more responsible nation generally, and I’m not aware of India having a track record of irresponsible proliferation to anyone but itself. Unlike the case with North Korea and Iran, the U.S. has increasing diplomatic, military, and economic ties with India, which equal influence. And of course, India refrains from kidnapping, dope dealing, counterfeiting, and support for wanton murder, perhaps because democracies like India are much less inclined to be dangerous to their neighbors. I agree with the CI to the extent that we’re skimping on principle. On the other hand, the U.S. is like every other diplomatic power: it has a limited supply of magic beans to plant. It may well have taken a strategic decision to plant them in weedier gardens.

Maybe China would like to take up this issue as we’re asking the Security Council for sanctions against North Korea.

Here’s a question the Chosun Ilbo and OhMyNews probably haven’t asked themselves, perhaps because they’re not in the habit of expecting reason from North Korea: what about the double standard of North Korea insisting on U.S. nuclear disarmament, but not asking the same of China or Russia, both of which also had reps at the table?

Or Japan, for that matter (makes for good reading on the 60th anniversary of the A-bombings).