( CNN ) -- World leaders are moving carefully and anxiously , trying to prevent a disaster in the Korean Peninsula . This increasingly unpredictable round of saber-rattling is far from over , but so far the winner is the North Korean regime and the losers are the brutally oppressed North Korean people , joined by much of the rest of the world . While we watch the drama from far away , it 's worth noting just how far North Korean weapons programs -- not just the weapons themselves -- can reach . U.S. intelligence officials differ on their estimates of the range and accuracy of North Korean missiles , nuclear-tipped or not . But the country 's nuclear and missile technology has already found its way to the Middle East . North Korea helped Syria develop a nuclear reactor . It has sold missile technology and weapons to anyone willing to pay , and it has developed close cooperation with Iran . If the crisis ended right now -- with every piece of military hardware back to where it stood a few months ago and everyone taking a vow of silence on the matter so that we get no more threats and no more demands -- the confrontation would have already sent clear and damaging messages across the globe , encouraging tyrants and regimes seeking or considering the idea of developing nuclear weapons . Opinion : North Korea endgame - 3 scenarios . North Korea 's message seems to be : If you have nuclear capabilities , it does n't matter how outrageously you behave ; it does n't matter how horribly you mistreat your people ; it does n't matter how flimsy your economy is . When you have a nuclear arsenal , countries that could topple your regime with a tiny fraction of their power suddenly become afraid of making you angry . This is a pernicious reality with tragic and hazardous consequences . Nuclear development makes it easier for the totalitarian regime to condemn the North Korean people to grinding poverty and imprisonment in nightmarish gulags . Several generations of the same family can live and die in captivity . While the North Korean people go hungry , the regime diverts scarce resources to its nuclear and missile programs while its top leader , the youthful Kim Jong Un , adds insult to injury with his visibly expanding girth . As the latest crisis unfolded and as North Korea threatened a `` preemptive nuclear attack '' on the United States , a `` final destruction '' of South Korea , and a `` nuclear attack '' on Tokyo , world powers held a new round of talks with the Iranian regime over its nuclear program . Coincidence or not , the talks with Iran produced nothing , not even the customary agreement to hold more talks . Iran , one can only imagine , must be paying close attention to the dance macabre between Pyongyang and the rest of the world . North Korea , whose entire economy is worth about $ 40 billion -- less than a small-sized American city and a tiny fraction of prosperous South Korea and its trillion-dollar economy -- has ordered the whole world to attention . Experts are scratching their heads , trying to figure out what exactly Kim Jong Un wants and how far he will go . There 's general consensus that he wants , like all dictators , to strengthen his hold on power and to secure the support of the military . But he is accomplishing more than that . North Korea is giving its crucial weapons industry a huge boost of publicity . Every headline is a Super Bowl-size ad for the country 's destructive wares . Opinion : Why I fled North Korea . Current and future clients may have noticed that its arsenal has allowed North Korea to get away with creating these crises , which fortify the regime and sometimes even bring generous international aid . Without its dangerous arsenal , it 's unlikely Pyongyang would have gotten away with the 2010 shelling of Yeonpyeong island , when it killed two South Korean marines and three civilians , sent the population fleeing in panic and set homes and forests on fire . Despite South Korea 's vow of `` enormous retaliation , '' the regime is still in place . Not only is it still standing , it is spreading its deadly know-how . North Korea has long been one of the world 's top proliferators of missiles and other weapons systems . U.S. officials say Iran recently received North Korean missiles capable of reaching Western European capitals . Last September , Tehran and Pyongyang signed a scientific cooperation agreement , which experts say is almost identical to the one North Korea signed with Syria a decade ago . That agreement with Damascus brought North Korean technicians to help the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad build a nuclear reactor that Israeli warplanes destroyed in 2007 . And the North , incidentally , is still sending weapons to Damascus . Back home , when North Korea carried out its third nuclear test earlier this year , news reports in the region said Iranian scientists were there to observe . This standoff is not over , but Pyongyang has already won . From the moment the North obtained nuclear weapons , however rudimentary , the game changed . From that moment , the chances that the North Korean people will rejoin the world and have a chance at a better life diminished greatly . From that moment , the South and the West 's room to maneuver became much more limited . The challenge now is to prevent a greater disaster , while keeping the regime from scoring an even greater victory , as it has in the past , by walking away from this confrontation with new rewards . Beyond that , the world must seek a creative way to help free the North Korean people , while bearing in mind the disastrous consequences of allowing dangerous regimes to obtain nuclear weapons . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Frida Ghitis .
Frida ##n : North Korean weapons programs have spread to the Middle East . Ghitis : North Korea 's messages encourage tyrants to seek nuclear weapons . She ##er with nuclear arsenal , powerful people are afraid to make a regime angry . Kim : This standoff is not over , but Kim has already won .