A New Arms Race !

There is an old Middle East saying that is pertinent in todays western world.  "  The enemy of my enemy - is my friend ".  North Korea has long been a hermit kingdom, ruled by the Kim  family as a  personal dictatorship from the end of the second world war and now emerging as the newest member of the nuclear club of nations.

Its clash with the power of the United States over the testing of nuclear weapons and the development of delivery systems has led to world wide sanctions that are crippling a small nation that has problems even feeding its citizens.  China has finally agreed to tighten the screws and choke off the oil supply and that may eventually bring North Korea to a standstill.

Fears are emerging that in desperation North Korea has been selling its missile technology to Myanmar and that Asian nation now has multiple rocket launchers and surface to air missiles, including the Hwasong 5 which are capable of mobile launching and have a range of 300 kilometres. Weapon sales have probably delivered a $255 million dividend to the struggling North Korean economy.

Myanmar has been accused of " ethnic cleansing " when nearly a million Rohingya Muslims were driven over the border to Bangladesh by the Myanmar military.  While it now has a nominal civilian government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, the military junta retains the real power and the acquisition of advanced weaponry would be insurance against outside interference.

Sanctions are a better option to all out war, but North Kora has the ability to sell both the nuclear bomb and the means to deliver it to countries the United States and the western world consider to be " enemies ", and they are spread in many parts of the world.

World leaders shudder at the thought of Syria armed with nuclear weapons or the bomb falling into the hands of Palestinians in conflict with Israel.   Iran has entered an agreement to not develop its own nuclear capabilities, but the option to buy that technology ready made would be tempting.  The imposition of sanctions on North Korea has made that frightening possibility a nightmare for the United Nations.

After the second world war the age of the atom was confined to just five countries and just a handful of other responsible nations forced their way into the club.   For the first time, the nuclear genie is out of the bottle and a nuclear armed nation has a spiteful reason to make this awesome means of mass destruction available to regimes with fanatical reasons to not hold back on its use.

It seems that this threat is in direct relation to the success of the sanctions imposed on North Korea.  The more they strangle the North Korean economy, the greater the reason for that small nation to remain economically afloat by selling its nuclear technology to eager buyers.

It seems that the Doomsday clock has edged even closer to midnight !