Before talk of a Syrian connection, an article in the March issue of Arms Control Today by Siegfried Hecker and William Liou listed the many ways North Korea's nuclear expertise could be of use to Iran, which also has suspect nuclear ambitions.

ECONOMIST: The devil in the nuclear detail

Amazingly, some of those same people -- including Spurgeon Keeney , president of the Arms Control Association and Mary Elizabeth Hoinkes , a former U.S. Arms Control Agency lawyer, who are quoted in today's Washington Post -- are sharply critical of even these modest efforts to understand and begin to address the threat that they purport to regard as a serious one (at least when opposing missile defenses).

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

Mr. SCOTT SAGAN (Director, Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control): Sometimes they're interested in nuclear weapons because the United States is everybody's neighbor today.

NPR: Nuclear Weapons Gain Importance for Regional Powers