The news headline of this Sunday evening is that North Korea claims to conduct a 2nd nuclear test, once again raising the stakes in the international efforts to prevent North Korea from attaining a nuclear weapon.
There was progress when in February 2007 North Korea agreed to shut down a nuclear power plant in exchange for oil fuel, and the easing of economic sanctions. But the process collapsed in December when they rejected the verification measures being sought by the Bush administration:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/world/asia/25nuke.html
So, if I'm reading this right, the North Koreans are welcoming foreign aid, but they are not letting the international community confirm that they are indeed shutting down the nuclear plants. Does that sound like cheating to you?
It's a game that most understand: North Korea is a desolate country ruled by a brutal dictator who's out of touch with reality (or maybe he's smarter than we think and is actually well aware that his country is desperate, but intends to keep it that way), and wants to have a nuclear bomb to bully the entire region. The international community, led by the United States, seeks to prevent this from happening via sanctions and aid. But over the past few years, this has become a give and take scenario where the North Koreans wants to develop a nuclear weapon while getting aid at the same time, and when the negotiating countries threaten to cut aid, they threaten to enrich plutonium and test bombs.
So now it's become a waiting game: the various nations might just need to wait for North Korea to become a country so dysfunctional that it will beg for aid. Perhaps the change of leadership from Kim Jong Il to one of his sons will help ease the tensions, like Raul Castro did when Fidel retired.
That, or allow the Kim regime to attain the A-bomb, and hope that they don't start World War 3.
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Cheating is a skill needed in politics. Kim Jong Il will never allow UN inspection for nuclear weapon on his turf. It is a no-win exercise to him. He loses international aids if weapons were found. He loses face if no weapons were found.
ReplyDeleteOnly one country can solve the N Korea impasse - CHINA. I don't know why China keeps its stance on N Korea other than that they share the same idiology. It is understandable why China defends the Khmer Rouge. But N Korea is a different monster. China has to understand that N Korea must be stopped in making a nuclear bomb now. China is steering away from the course of communism by the day. There may come a day when N Korea could think it was sold out and point that bomb toward Beijing.