Never again is what you swore the time before...

It's a kind of International policy, but where will it lead Europe?

Where the French, German, Spanish, and EU-vian international affairs position is concerning dealings with the United States is concerned, a clear pattern is emerging. It was evident in small ways as far back as 1993, but was only employed intermittently, and appeared to be motivated more by trade than by strategic or diplomatic interests.

When the US identifies either a long range security concern or is dealing with a potential adversary, France and (with less frequency) Germany immediately start dealing with or propping up the adversary, or support a wedge faction. This has proved true with European government aid monies being funneled to Hamas, dropping gripes about political imprisonment and engaging in trade with the murderous Castro regime of Cuba, competing hard with Russia to do business with the Iran, selling them arms, and offering to soft-peddle the resolution on plutonium reactors. Now we see a similar long-term project showing itself: European ties with North Korea. Some choose not to, others do.

Never mind the fact that this could undermine the dealings the NorKs have with China, Japan, and South Korea – their target appears to be the US engagement with the parties at hand in keeping a triangular imbalance of power igniting over the matters of either North Korean threats to Seoul, Tokyo, and Beijing, or a war being fought across the Taiwan Straights.

Part of this problem on the Europe end is that the EU is showing itself to being a hydra-headed geopolitical entity. Some days nations are dealing with the EU, others with an individual state, and sometimes with lost policies conveniently found to me in the middle of a state of transition.

Frank Hart, one of our most committed readers and commenters wrote:

I'm not making anything up, just passing along what the MSM here says. It's well-known that the Russians are the primary contractors with Iran. It is also known that Germany is helping the Iranians by making it possible for them to get the currency they need to pay the Russians. Even the Iranians admit that they have purchased interests in European companies involved in uranium enrichment. One has to wonder how their management direction changed after the fall of the Shah. What is not publicly available anywhere is confirmation of suspicions that France and Germany have business dealings with Iran that are as dirty as were those with Iraq. That may have to wait until after the mullahs fall.On the North Korean trade front, the reporting has been cast more in the context of the EU setting up trade deals. Of course, the irony here is that all Kim Jong Il would want to buy is arms, even though what he really needs is food. My understanding is that Germany has refused to trade -- not for lack of desire, but because it put no faith in North Korea's letters of credit. Smart move, that.

Further he finds:

“Concerning NoKo business links to other countries, including Spain. I would add one elaboration about Japan: So what? If NoKo had kidnapped hundreds of your nationals, to what lengths would you go to get them out? As far as I know, nobody from Spain is being held against his will in NoKo. As for China and Hong Kong doing business with them, well -- surprise, surprise, huh?”

But here’s is a real doozy - direct from the European reports: the EU has set up an office to protect intellectual property in North Korea.

There are also the NoKo-linked Credit Bank in Vienna: That one is not new -- it's been around since the mid-90s. The bank itself has been active in and around Europe since the mid-80s.

- Thank you, Frank.

Acting out of convenience while the Kim Jong Il’s government behaves as it does isn’t just appalling, it flies in the face of the supposed moral superpower “prime directive” the EU imagines for itself. What’s worse, is that if forces on the South Koreans to compete with the North Korean for European attention to maintain existing relations which would otherwise be at risk.

North Korea’s biggest problems are the weather and the seasons. They tailor their good NorK/ bad NorK positions based on what they need when they need it. Instead of structurally reforming their economy, they have chosen to take their blackmail tactics into the nuclear age. To be sure, their position internationally depends on starving their people, while the need to engage others is based on their people starving. The inhumanity of this behaviour is obvious.

Where does this leave the Europeans, though? It will forever put them the embarrassing position they found themselves in when it came to deposing Saddam Hussein, and never actually having the opportunity to prove itself any sort of “moral superpower”.