Beating a dead horse now

but has anyone yet figured out why N. Korea can flat out tell the U.S. they're going to build wmd's and they get a visit from some mid-level state dept. flunkies while 100,000 soldiers are sent to invade and occupy Iraq, a country that was, as far as I could tell, minding it's business?

soil.:hi:

freak.

China.

Long answer. I work here in Korea and have for eight years. I began working here with the now defunct IASK (Institute for Asian Security Korea), nowI work for the Korean Government monitoring North Korea. North Korea always has been China's buffer against a US land invasion against China. Prior to Afghanistan, the US had no land forces with easy access to the Chinese mainland. North Korea is China's ally not by China's choice, but by necessity.
North Korea uses their relationship with China to it's advantage. It has a fairly extensive slave-trade operation, it has attempted numerous times to sell low-level military technology to the highest bidder and it allows the North to build nuclear weapons.
Iraq had no such ally.

I was about to give a smart ass answer about oil, noticed somebody else had beat me to it, and opened your post for some reason.

Glad I did, because your short long answer taught me an awful lot. Thank you.

until later

to have wmd's, as long as they don't have oil. Is that it?

The fact that NK has nukes guarantees their safety. That along with the things mentioned above.