■"U.S. Warning North Koreans On Nuclear Test: Punitive Action Vowed; No Details Are Given on What Type of Sanctions Might Be Used," by David E. Sanger, New York Times, 16 May 2005, p. A1.

■"Iran Parliament Calls for Resuming Nuclear Fuel Development: Discouraging the government from compromising in talks with the Europeans," by Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, 16 May 2005, p. A9.

America is talking tougher and tougher on North Korea, and that is good, whereas the Europeans are keeping the rhetoric fairly low on Iran, and that is also good.

Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, went on TV Sunday to draw an effective "red line" not to be crossed by North Korea: testing a nuclear weapon. Such talk sets the table for kinetic responses by the Pentagon down the road, as in, "we warned, they did it anyway, and now here is the military response."

We do not make similar threats on Iran for now, and that makes sense, for there is a tired, authoritarian regime ripe for killing through connectivity. North Korea presents no such opportunity, shielded as it is from the outside world by its totalitarian regime. We need a stable Iran to exist if we're going to successfully transform the Middle East, but we likewise need a North Korea to disappear for East Asia to move beyond its Cold War past and into a military alliance system that befits our growing economic interdependence.