Without a doubt, many on the lunatic fringe will argue that it was Bush's belligerency that pushed North Korea to develop nuclear arms, as if a psychopathic despot who starves his people needs much of an excuse.
North Korea's economic policy is all about extorting money from others by threatening them, and a nuclear arsenal is the ultimate racket. We can thank China for having protected the Kim regime for all these years, which is precisely whu Bush preferred multilateral negotiations. It's too late to speculate whether a bilateral approach would have been better - I doubt it - because now it's clear that Pyongyang doesn't take any negotiations seriously. It should be obvious by now that North Korea will not stop its nuclear arms program, whatever the US, EU, or the UN tries.
The ideal scenario would be that Beijing did the hard work by invading North Korea, dismantling any WMD capabilities, and then letting South Korea take over. It would be bloody and messy, but less so than a nuclear exchange involving Japan and South Korea. What it would take for China to act with such courage and principle, I wouldn't know.
If it weren't for all expended political capital and military resources in Iraq, it might be easier to imagine a US-led coalition taking on North Korea - massive air strikes against nuclear facilities and artillery pieces trained at Seoul; land-based assault across the DMZ; some kind of coordination with China. It would terrify the South Koreans, but the alternative scenarios look worse by the day.
Not an easy problem - and I'm not sure Bush and Rice are up to it.
Sent wirelessly from my Blackberry.
Everything is getting a little messy. Probably Koreans are thinking of their next move.
Posted by: seo services | June 08, 2011 at 03:19 AM