 |
| North Korea still remains skeptical of US diplomatic attempts. |
“They should take measures of
retracting the U.N. Security Council’s ‘resolutions on sanctions’ cooked up
under absurd pretexts,” the Policy Department of the National Defense
Commission, North Korea’s highest governing body, said in a statement carried by
its official Korean Central News Agency. “They should give formal assurances
before the world that they would not stage again such nuclear war drills to
threaten or blackmail [the North].”
In response, a South Korean defense
ministry official requesting anonymity stated “The tensions should gradually
decrease from here, but we cannot lose ourselves to complacency. We do still
have to be prepared for any provocations.” Nevertheless, as US Secretary of
State, John Kerry, said during his recent visit to the peninsula, “...our
preference would be to get to talks.”
The only question remaining is what
will the talks focus on?
Diplomatic Disasters
World
diplomacy with North Korea has a long and troubled past, plagued by the fact
that US and international officials are completely unsure of the nation’s
political status. Forced to use a fuzzy interpretation of state propaganda and gathered
intelligence as a barometer, US diplomats have often missed key opportunities to
get through to either of the Kim Jong’s. In the past, the US mantra has been to
stop the North Korean nuclear program and to guarantee South Korea protection
should Northern threats be actualized. However, if the US enters this new set
of talks with the same mindset, the only item that will be guaranteed is a
continuation of the vicious cycle of threats and provocation.
Now
that North Korea has a nuclear weapon, as well as the ability to launch such
warheads globally coming in the near future, the US cannot afford to continue
to treat North Korea as a misbehaving child but instead must look upon them as
a viable threat. With that in mind, US diplomats need to recognize the fact
that the current diplomatic stance only makes Kim Jong Un feel more threatened than
reassured.
Ready for Reform
Were Kim Jong Un reassured, the
world might begin to see North Korea open up to more western thought and
technology. Kim Jong Un has discussed improving North Korea’s dying economy and
has hinted that the nation may move in the direction of reforms [however
slight]. This fact was evidenced by the recent visit of Google CEO Eric Schmidt
to Pyongyang, showing that Un may be ready to allow new development in North
Korea.
However,
Charles Armstrong, Director of Korean Research at Columbia University, believes
that any hope of change will be stifled by the current US approach to North
Korean relations. “The dilemma, though, is that North Korea can only embark on
serious reform from a condition of what it considers absolute security,” Armstrong
notes in an op-ed for CNN. “Unfortunately, the quest for security and the
desire for economic improvement have been in contradiction for some time. A
genuine opening could unleash political and social changes...while the path of
security through nuclear deterrence and missiles have led time and again to
confrontation and renewed isolation.”
The old
adage states “Do not attempt to reason with a fool. He will only drag you down
to his level and beat you over the head with his ignorance.” Call it
nationalistic, but North Korea has been foolhardy in its recent provocation of
the US. As history has shown, you cannot beat the ignorance of out of the
communist political system, but instead, you can speak a language that they do
understand: money. Only by providing
strong incentives instead of punishments, obtainable rewards instead of
sanctions, and deliberate reassurance instead of threats in kind, will the US
and the rest of the world slowly lure North Korea down the path of peace.
Sources:
-Washington Post, April 18, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-hints-at-willingness-for-talks-despite-ongoing-rhetoric/2013/04/18/33628576-a800-11e2-a8e2-5b98cb59187f_story.html
-New York Times, April 18, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/world/asia/north-korea-tension.html?_r=0
-The Guardian, April 18, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/18/north-korea-conditions-us-talks
-Charles Armstrong, “Why Sticks don’t work with North Korea,”
January 25, 2013, http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/25/why-sticks-dont-work-with-north-korea/
