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SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- As the U.S. focuses on a potential conflict
with Iraq, some observers fear Washington's contrasting approach to the
threat from North Korea is sending a dangerous message to potential rogue
nations.

With U.S. spy satellites detecting signs that North Korea is moving
nuclear fuel rods out of storage at its Yongbyon reactor, there's a
growing chorus of voices arguing that the regime of Kim Jong Il presents a
much more immediate danger than Iraq.

In his recent State of the Union address U.S. President George W. Bush
said that the U.S. and the world "must learn the lessons of the Korean
peninsula and not allow an even greater threat to rise up in Iraq."

But the question is: "What are the lessons being learned from the current
situation?"

"The North Korean threat is much more advanced, and because they have the
ability to deliver ballistic missiles against our allies, either with
chemical or biological weapons, and, in the extreme, possibly with a
nuclear warhead, that is directly influencing our willingness to consider
military options," Jon Wolfsthal of the Carnegie Endowment told CNN.

It is precisely because North Korea poses a greater military threat -- on
top of its nuclear program it has a million-strong army and thousands of
artillery pieces within range of Seoul -- the Bush administration has
conspicuously avoided talking about a military solution.

"You don't bomb a nuclear nation. Saddam Hussein does not have nuclear
weapons. North Korea does," Henry Sokolski of the Non-Proliferation
Education Policy Center says.

To other adversaries of the United States, that could send a powerful
message.

"The message you send is: Go get nuclear weapons in a hurry," Leon Sigal,
author of the book "Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea", says.

"This is a policy of proliferation, not non-proliferation. This is going
to ensure the North Koreans develop weapons, and continue to sell
weapons."

What worries many is other nations absorbing that message and trying to
follow the same path.

Such a course could hold enormous and grim implications for future world
security.