NORTH KOREA….David Adesnik of OxBlog wants to talk about North Korea, and points to his contribution to the debate here. So let’s talk.
What are the options for dealing with North Korea? There are three:
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A military strike. Clinton considered this eight years ago, but backed off for obvious reasons. And quite aside from a lack of domestic support, a military strike is hardly feasible unless it’s supported by the South Koreans, which it isn’t. So that’s out.
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Economic sanctions. Unfortunately, we’re already doing this and there’s little evidence that they are making much difference.
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Negotiation.
So, given that negotiation is really the only option, how would I rate Bush’s performance on North Korea? Let me put it this way: how would you rate the emperor’s performace in the throne room in Return of the Jedi? With the right nudge, Luke might have been turned to the dark side and we would have been spared three more films, but instead the emperor had to engage in some gratuitous trash talking just because it made him feel good. And the result? Like a trash talking newspaper clip pinned to a locker room bulletin board, it just spurred Luke on. Final score: Luke 1, Emperor 0.
So: we should knock off the blustering that accomplishes the exact opposite of what we want. We’re big enough that we don’t need it. Instead, we should talk, talk, talk, and talk some more. We should promise to take Kim Jong-il seriously, even if we have to leave the room frequently to keep ourselves from busting up laughing. We should make a deal and do our best to monitor it until it breaks down, and then we should make some new deal to replace it.
What’s that, you don’t like this approach? It sends the wrong message? We shouldn’t negotiate with bullies? Tough. It’s the way the world works. Kim Jong-il is obviously well aware that nobody would care about North Korea if it weren’t for the army, and the missiles, and the bombs, so he’s not going to give them up.
We should either launch a military attack or else go to the table and negotiate. And if it’s going to be negotiation, then we should do the best job of negotiation we can, and that means sucking it up and acting like a major power, not some tinpot labor leader trying to rally the faithful with rock-em-sock-em rhetoric about never compromising with the evil corporate bosses. Bush knew very well how North Korea was likely to react to his ridiculous “Axis of Evil” childishness, but he went ahead and did it anyway because it made him feel good. He’s made his bed, and now he has to lie in it.
