jorgelito

It's worse than that. North Korea needs cash, OBL et al have lots of cash. The real threat is North Korea selling weapons (nuclear etc) to non-state actors like terrorist organizations or non-rogue states.

There is precedent, NK has been caught before (ship) trying to export weapons to Syria etc. Luckily we caught them else the Lebanon eperience may have turned out quite differently, like-wise Iraq (think insurgents crossing into Iraq from Syria). EX: an IED that is nuclear goes off in Iraq.

MAD is no longer applicable in the post 9/11 world order (in my opinion). NK is in an assymetrical relationship vis-a-vis the other parties. basically, none of the parties are willing to pay the price in acceptable losses to resolve the NK situation while NK has nothing to lose and can hold everyone hostage to its demands. Especially in a regime like Kim's there is no inherent built in self-preservation device that MAD operates on. I personally think NK is "suicidal", if anything, they are playing a game of chicken.