WHY NOT NORTH KOREA TOO?

Why should India and Pakistan be able to arm themselves with nuclear weapons, but not North Korea?

North Korea has just set off a nuclear device that was three to five times more powerful than the ones it set off in 2006 and 2009.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta responded to North Korea’s test by declaring that “We just saw what North Korea has done in these last few weeks, a missile test and now a nuclear test. They represent a serious threat to the United States of America, and we've got to be prepared to deal with that.” And President Obama condemned the test as a “highly provocative act” and pledged swift international action to bring the rogue communist regime in line.

Now I am the last person who wants to see North Korea, or Iran for that matter, armed with nuclear weapons, but let’s look at it from Pyongyang’s perspective.

The United States and North Korea have been bitter enemies ever since the beginning of the Korean War in 1950. The United States has over 20,000 troops stationed in South Korea along its border with North Korea. The North Korean regime sees the presence of American troops along its border as a serious threat to its security.

The U.S. is a nuclear power. So are Russia, Britain and France in Europe, China, India and Pakistan in Asia and Israel in the Middle East. Then why shouldn’t North Korea or Iran be able to arm themselves with nuclear weapons?

From the perspective of the U.S. and its allies, North Korea and Iran are outlaw nations. But the North Koreans and the Iranians see Uncle Sam as the bad guy of the world.

We raised all kinds of hell over North Korea's long-range missile test in December and now we are going ballistic over Pyongyang’s nuclear test. But when India and Pakistan fired off their nuclear devices we made hardly a peep.

While I have absolutely no use for North Korea and Iran, I just don’t see why they should not have the right to arm themselves with nuclear weapons as a defense against their perceived enemies.

President Obama wants to have a nuclear-free world and is reported to be taking unilateral steps to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in our arsenal. Russia, which also has a huge nuclear arsenal, might follow suit, but there is no reason for China, India and Pakistan to reduce the number of nuclear weapons they own.

And there is only one reason Israel has not been attacked by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and even Jordan, and that is because the Jewish state has a nuclear arsenal. The Israelis are not about to give up their ace in the hole.