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Here is a counterpoint to my earlier posting. North Korea doesn't listen to anyone. They seem to be in their own little world, so I'm not sure that we'd be able to achieve anything by going through China. I guess China could cut off trade with North Korea, but China doesn't want to risk hurting their economy by doing that. China isn't going to do a dang thing to help us out, so the best strategy would be for us to manipulate North Korea into becoming friends with us. Like I've said before, we need to invite the leaders of N. Korea to America and treat them to a week long vacation. We can share our hospitality and show them that it's better for them to work with us than against us. What does us getting angry at them achieve? Imposing sanctions is only a short term solution, we need to do something that'll change their attitudes. How could we pacify North Korea? Well for one thing we need to at least talk to them, we don't have to agree to their demands, but I think it'd be smart to hear them out and let them release some steam. If we appear attentive maybe that could ease the tension a little. After the attention is eased, we ought to invite the leaders of N. Korea to America where we'll treat them to a vacation complete with dinner, sightseeing tours, the works. How could they attack us after seeing what a beautiful country this is? They would probably appreciate being treated like royalty. We need to use psychology on them. Here is my response. I agree that sanctions will probably be ineffective, and you may be correct that pressure from China may not go anywere. The US tried to initiate talks, but it's unclear how seriously we pursued this. A definition for insanity is doing the same thing over again but expecting different results. Bush has the multinational approach stuck in his head like a bee stinger. I don't see the harm in opening bilateral talks. Bilateral talks isn't a reward to a rogue regime but a tactic in our own self-interest. Such talks would anger China as they would perceive the US as extending legitimacy to North Korean's actions. However, I think it serves our purposes to anger China to prompt them to act more forcefully against one of the client states. Just as China wouldn't tolerate Tibet with a nuclear weapon, I'm sure the same is true with North Korea. The problem for the world community is that we may be dealing with a leader who is certifiably insane. However, it's possible to manipulate even people who are insane. Thus, your idea of using flattery and offers of technical assistance as a certain counter-intuitive logic. It's more in our interest to embrace North Korea than to isolate it, no matter how obnoxious that may appear. In 1939, Senator William Borah said, upon learning the Hitler had decided to invalid Poland, "Lord, if only I had talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." This anecdote is used to temper the assumption that good will, hospitality, and kind words can change the mind of a tyrant. While I believe that, the correllary is that we cannot assume that good will, hospitality, and kind words won't necesserily yield results. So, from that perspective, it may very well be that a trip to Disney or Hollywood might be just what is needed to constrain Great Leader Kim Jong II. The man sits not just on an organizational pyramid of brainwashed apparatchiks, he also sits on a dung hill of illusions and myth. An introduction to the best that the United States has to offer will do little to melt those illusions or change the minds of functionaries that serve him. However, by entering into a dialogue of sorts, combined with all the diplomatic niceities that those talks can provide, we may find ways to get information and also to shape views that we cannot do by further isolating the regime with toothless sanctions. |