Posted on 11/17/2007 10:26:07 PM PST by AmericanInTokyo
By Elan Journo web posted October 29, 2007
Thanks to a new diplomatic deal, the nuclear stand-off with North Korea will allegedly end bloodlessly. In exchange for 950,000 tons of fuel oil, or its equivalent in economic aid and diplomatic concessions from the West, North Korea has promised to disclose all of its nuclear programs and disable all of its nuclear facilities. This new arrangement is being celebrated as a levelheaded, practical, win-win solution to the problem of the North Korean nuclear threat.
But this deal, like all previous ones, rewards the North for its aggression and will strengthen it into a worse menace. North Korea has become a significant threat precisely because we have appeased it for years with boatloads of oil, food and money.
Some twenty years ago, North Korea's nuclear ambitions became glaringly obvious. Ignoring this, the West pretended that this hostile dictatorship would honor a treaty banning nuclear weapons. To get its signature took years of Western groveling and concessions. The North's promises to halt its nuclear program were predictably hollow. By 1993, after preventing required inspections of its nuclear facilities, Pyongyang announced its intention to withdraw from the treaty. Our response?
More "diplomacy" -- in the form of the "Agreed Framework," brokered in 1994. For agreeing to freeze its nuclear program, North Korea was offered two light-water nuclear reactors (putatively for generating electricity) and, until the reactors were operational, 500,000 metric tons of oil annually (nearly half its annual energy consumption).The United States, along with Japan and South Korea, paid for these lavish gifts. During these years of apparent tranquility, our handouts and assurances of security buoyed North Korea as it furtively completed two reactors capable of yielding weapons-grade fuel. By 2003 -- when the North actually did withdraw from the nuclear treaty -- it was clear that Pyongyang had continued secretly to develop weapons-capable nuclear technology.
The pattern of America's suicidal diplomacy is clear: the North threatens us, we respond with negotiations, gifts and concessions, and it emerges with even greater belligerence. Observe how in October 2006 North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb -- and how it now extracts further concessions from the West.
Without economic aid, technical assistance and protracted negotiations affording it time, it is unlikely that the North -- continually on the brink of economic collapse -- could have survived. It is also unlikely that it could have built one of largest armies in the world. The North is believed to have sold long-range ballistic missiles to Iran, Yemen, Pakistan and Syria. By some estimates, North Korea already has the material to create eight nuclear bombs. As it doubtless will continue engaging in clandestine nuclear development, the North may soon be selling nuclear weapons.
What made this cycle of appeasement possible -- and why do our political and intellectual leaders insist that further "diplomacy" will work? Because they reject moral judgment and cling to the fiction that North Korea shares our basic goal of prosperity and peace. This fantasy underlies the notion that the right mix of economic aid and military concessions can persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program. It evades the fact that the North is a militant dictatorship that acquires and maintains its power by force, looting the wealth of its enslaved citizens and threatening to do the same to its neighbors. This abstract fact, the advocates of diplomacy believe, is dispensable; if we ignore it, then it ceases to exist.
Notice how, in preparing the way for renewed talks, the Bush administration ceased describing North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" -- as if this could alter its moral stature.
What the advocates of diplomacy believe, in effect, is that pouring gasoline onto an inferno will extinguish the fire -- so long as we all agree that it will. Thus: if we agree that North Korea is not a hostile parasite, then it isn't; if we pretend that this dictatorship would rather feed its people than amass weapons, then it would; if we shower it with loot, it will stop threatening us. But the facts of North Korea's character and long-range goals, like all facts, are impervious to anyone's wishful thinking. Years of rewarding a petty dictatorship for its belligerent actions did not disarm it, but helped it become a significant threat to America.
There is only one solution to the "North Korea problem": the United States and its allies must abandon the suicidal policy of appeasement.
Elan Journo is a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand -- author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead." Contact the writer at media@aynrand.org. Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.
Lame Duck Legacy.
Who is going to clean this mess up in 2009?!
It is getting bad.
Somebody needs to open a window.
Bush has worms.
NK engages in bad behavior and we pay to stop it. This is known as “blackmail”. And Iran is watching.
You have to wonder what the Annapolis “peace” fisco is a setup for. It starts sometime after November 26th.
This Palestinian statehood concept is something the Europeans dearly want and what will the United States get in return for squeezing Israel.
“Tougher sanctions” on Iran followed by a negotated deal of some sort with them.
A deal that will allow them to build or keep nuclear weapons openly or secretly.
Europe, Russia, China have their own agendas and there’s a get along attitude coming out of Washington right now.
Are there not 6 parties involved in these talks? Wonder what the other 5 parties are requiring of US to continue the talks.
Of course, the other nations in the six party talks beside Japan will all look the other way at blatant violations by the DPRK--which is exactly what they will be doing in the next few weeks, months and years.
Of course, the other nations in the six party talks beside Japan will all look the other way at blatant violations by the DPRK--which is exactly what they will be doing in the next few weeks, months and years.
Morning bump.
“Who is going to clean this mess up in 2009?!”
Good question.
NK is following the well-worn playbook written by the USSR and followed with some success throughout the Cold War. Every time they became menacing over some trouble spot, US leftists would get hysterical, and the gov would seek to soothe the Bear with "concessions." The system was working well, with Soviet hegemony expanding, until we elected Ronald Reagan and upset the whole democrat/Soviet apple cart.
Georeg Bush has followed the same useless game plan every president from FDR to Carter did, and his father and Clinton did, to no good purpose. Appease your enemies and hope that by pleasing them you will convince them that you are their friend, and hope they will like you enough not to kill you and take what you have.
A fine time tested strategy, which has worked wonders with the pali's in the MidEast as well.
Nothing of value, that's for sure.
Being nice to terrorist’s is working for the State Department in Israel. Now they only fire artillery rockets into Israel every day.
Funny how in the name of peace we are placing an Islamic radical state within a state in every nation who’s foundation is based on religious faith.
One would think they are about ready to declare a new world order after some “accidental” world event. Those nations that would not go along based on their faith structure will be Jihaded into submission.
Lets see, a new world order with ten economic zones, a State All Gods are one God church and all we need is a new charismatic leader out of Rome to create a legacy by setting up a 7 year peace treaty allowing Jews access to the Temple Mount to build a new Jewish temple.
Gee, things are moving fast.
Thanks for the reply!
Agreed.
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