No one can fail to notice the difference between Washington’s approach to North Korea and to Iraq although both are accused of developing nuclear weapons and both are famously labeled by President Bush as being part of an "axis of evil". While there are threats to attack Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime, in North Korea’s case, the White House is almost conciliatory. There is nothing about the need to overthrow what is, after all, an equally oppressive and potentially dangerous regime.
The White House says that the North Korean problem can be resolved peacefully. While "troubled" by Pyongyang’s admission (remarkably tame language, that), President Bush describes it as an "opportunity for regional cooperation: together, they can persuade the North Koreans to disarm. Yet, there is precious little similar American enthusiasm for regional cooperation to persuade the Iraqis to disarm — merely an expectation of regional backing in Saddam Hussein’s removal.
According to Bush, that is because Saddam Hussein is unique. No one would argue about that: for all the mass starvation in North Korea because of its uncompromising but destructively incompetent Stalinist policies, its leader, Kim Jong-Il, has not gassed or massacred his own people. Moreover, his regime does seem bent on reform and opening up to the outside world; indeed its admission about its nuclear plans may be seen as part of that process.
Nonetheless, there is another angle to Washington’s moderation. It does not want to damage its special relationship with South Korea — and, for all their own worries over the nuclear weapons issue, the South Koreans are determined to continue their policy of reconciliation with the North. Quite simply, the message has gone out from Seoul to Washington that "we can handle this", and the US has accepted it. That is not to say that Washington might not in the future make more threatening noises if the North proves truculent, but for the moment, it is only too happy to stick with the more hands-off approach, which already seems to be paying dividends. Yesterday North and South Korea publicly agreed to seek a peaceful resolution to the nuclear issue.
So far so good, then, as far as North Korea goes. It is a pity though that there has not been any Arab equivalent of South Korea which could bring Iraq in from the cold and, in doing so, help it change its ways — and give up weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately, in the 10 years since the Gulf War, the problem of Iraq has been largely sidestepped and ignored by the Arabs collectively (although not individually), and in part because of other agendas, in part because of divisions.
Of course, North Korea is changing because it has no other alternative; the country is bankrupt. South Korea has seized upon that opening. There is no similar available opening with Iraq. Nonetheless, the Arab failure to deal with Saddam Hussein is what has allowed the US to intervene and interfere. Even at the eleventh hour, it may not be too late to try and connect with Iraq, bring it back home into the Arab mainstream and thus avoid the impending crisis for it and for Arab-American relations.
