1. North Korea already has nuclear weapons and the capacity to deliver them to at least Japan.

2. North Korea and South Korea have the most militarized border on the planet with hundreds of thousands of troops within miles of each other.

3. Seoul is an hour from the DMZ. Any attack by the North could kill countless persons within minutes.

4. North Korea is also stocked with chemical weapons ready for delivery.

5. No matter how repressive the Iranian government is, it does not match the craziness found in North Korea.

6. North Korea is far more diplomatically isolated and desperate than Iran.

7. Iran’s politics are far more complex with many more levers to pull than in North Korea. Iran has many different constituencies and the capacity for positive change is at least extant, as demonstrated by the protests today. The only possible change in North Korea – at least right now – will be cataclysmic.

North Korea currently presents a far greater threat to national security – both relating to weapons proliferation and the possibility of mass death – than Iran.

I don’t claim to have the answers as to how to handle these two very different problems, but to suggest that Obama should not have two distinct policies towards these members of the “axis of evil” suggests some pretty simple thinking.

Obama’s only plan appears to be opening a dialogue with rogue nations and group, and woe be it to anyone or anything that gets in his way. He clearly believes in his ability to single-handedly solve the most intransigent problems, and nowhere is that more clear than his response following the Iranian election.

For days, the Obama Administration refused to offer support to the protesters or to criticize the Iranian regime. Instead, its focus was that nothing would interfere with Obama’s plans to talk to Iran about its nuclear weapons, regardless of who ends up in control. Because everything with Obama is about Obama.