AXIS OF EVIL INDEED

And notice how Syria tends to show up in all the wrong places...

Saddam Hussein was in the process of acquiring a North Korean assembly line for missiles, the New York Times has reported.

The deal came to light through information extracted from computer files found by international inspectors, the NYT said.

According to the report, the pre-war Iraq government had made a $US10 million down payment on a production line to churn out the DPRK's Redong missile system. Negotiations had stretched out for two years prior to the war but were at an apparent stalemate in the month before coalition forces attacked Iraq.

The system was to have been delivered to Iraq through Syria, but was delayed because of monitoring activity in the months immediately prior to the war, the report says.

Syria has denied any involvement in such a deal.