Diplomacy vs. Anti-Diplomacy with North Korea?

In his State of the Union Address in 2002, President George W. Bush named Iran, Iraq and North Korea state sponsors of terror that are seeking weapons of mass destruction and called them the “axis of evil.” Bush stated that: “The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.”

Bush’s speech may have been a mistake because he further isolated those countries, with the exception of Iraq. When the United States invaded Iraq, North Korea and Iran both accelerated their nuclear programs. North Korea, through its July 4 test of the Taepodong-2 missile and last week’s nuclear test, has ignored Bush. Thus, one of the world’s dangerous regimes has acquired the world’s dangerous weapons.

The U.S. and President Bush have recently turned to the United Nations for sanctions against North Korea. But sanctions will only isolate North Korea even more and allow it to continue its program. As for the citizens of North Korea, we have seen that Kim Jong-Il allows his people to starve to death to ensure North Korea’s isolation. Sanctions will affect his nation, not his regime.

In addition, North Korea doesn’t want to go to war with the U.S. because it knows its military doesn’t stand a chance against the U.S. military and its allies in the region. What North Korea wants is respect, protection, aid, admission into the international community and an end to the U.S. policy of regime change. On the other hand, the U.S. doesn’t want anymore atomic tests by North Korea; they want the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to return to North Korea’s nuclear facilities, and they don’t want it to sell nuclear materials to countries or groups that are considered “hostile” or “rogue” states.

The U.S. needs to practice “open-diplomacy” with North Korea, engaging it directly, as President Clinton did. The U.S. should also warn them that selling a nuclear weapon to a “hostile” regime or “rogue” state risks an attack by the U.S., and any nuclear weapon used against Americans will bring immense reprisal. At this point, there isn’t a need for the U.S. to attack North Korea. North Korea, like Iraq, never attacked the U.S. and a pre-emptive strike on it will bring further negative views on U.S. foreign policy. The Cold War was fought for decades without a single shot being fired from a weapon. The Cold War ended through talking.
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