VHeadline.com oil industry commentarist Andrew McKillop writes: News breaking today makes it clear that North Korea already has nuclear weapons and intends to keep them -- as insurance against Candy Rice and her King Biscuit Bombing Show, which has a short, two-word basis: Oil greed.

Duplicity and hypocrisy are hallmarks of the Bush-2 regime and its gang of oil thieves, as they almost admit themselves. G. W. Bush's recent vows to rid the world of tyranny, almost as fast as US oil greed drains it of oil, gave almost no mention at all to North Korea.

Not long ago, North Korea was a key bombing target for 'ray-jeem change,' through its membership with Iraq and Iran, of the Axis of Evil. North Korea was ideal, we could think, a great target for liberation-by-tomahawk missiles and bunker buster bombs. Through the deliberate bombing of water treatment works, power stations, roads, bridges, schools and hospitals, churches, mosques and government offices.

North Korea has only about the same population as Iraq, it is isolated, its rigid power system is anti-US, and through years of economic sanctions it is very poor - its people starve, exactly like Iraq after years of "Oil-for-Food", with a Saddam Hussein regime carefully kept in power.

Until Saddam committed the only crime that Bush cannot forgive: under-producing oil.

North Korea should be an ideal bombing target for the Bush gang of bomb-happy war criminals, but there is one missing ingredient: North Korea has no oil. Candy Rice herself says she has no immediate plans to bomb the place -- unlike Iran.

Iran has oil!

In their rush to bomb, however, the American self-declared 'liberators' forget plenty of facts concerning their new target.

Iran is a big country, better armed than Iraq, more ethnically homogenous and harder to ruin through divide-and-rule. It also has nuclear-armed neighbors, who may or may not appreciate what the USA's bomb-happy war criminals are itching to do.

Even Europeans, so far playing lapdog to Bush's rantings, may wake up and protest this evil folly.

• China, also, may not appreciate its chosen supplier of massive LNG shipments being casually bombed into ruins.

North Korea has however done one thing -- if you already possess nuclear weapons you are unlikely to be bombed by Americans. If you also do not have oil, this gives you further guarantees against 'ray-jeem change.'

This message will spread, over the years.

Andrew McKillop is an energy economist and consultant who recently edited a book for Pluto Books, ISBN 0745320929, title 'The Final Energy Crisis' including articles by Colin Campbell and Edward R D Goldsmith. He has held posts in national, international and supranational (Euro Commission) energy, and energy policy divisions and agencies. These missions have for example included role of Energy policy coordinator, Dept Minerals & Energy, Govt of Papua NG, advisory and management at the AREC technology transfer subsidiary of OAPEC, Kuwait, study missions at the ILO and UNDP, in-house consulting to the Hydro & Power Authority of British Columbia, Canada, seminar presentations at the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, study and technology review at the Canada Science Council, and elsewhere. Andrew is a regular contributor to VHeadline.com; he was first energy editor of the journal 'The Ecologist' and has co-authored published works with other analysts, e.g. 'Oil Crisis and Economic Adjustment.' Pinter Publishing, with Dr Salah al-Shaikhly, currently the Interim Iraqi government's Ambassador to London. He is actively seeking research, consulting or writing missions at this time. You may contact Mr. McKillop by email at xtran04@yahoo.com -- telephone London UK +44/ (207) 288 0475