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pssst..."after we give them 10 billion dollars".."after all we just hid the fact from the American people that we gave the palestini-ants 9 billion."

Tell Jung-Il we'll give him 10 billion dollars to surrender his country over to South Korea.

If they actually got rid of their nukes permanently for $10 billion from us, I'd call that a good deal. Of course they wouldn't actually do that. They'd do everything they could to get both the money and the nukes. This is what they are going try to do at the 6 party talks. From North Korea's standpoint, they'd be crazy to give up their nukes. They have no friends. Their biggest "ally" China sees more profit in aligning with South Korea than with them. They're cornered and nukes are the only assurance of security they have. They're also great for international blackmail.

Our bargaining position is terrible right now via North Korean nukes. What can we possibly offer them to give up their nukes? Food aid? Since when does Kim Jong Il care about his people? Besides, if his people weren't starving, they might have enough energy to revolt. Money? They'll just want more and more and never give up nukes.

As it stands right now, there's no way this is going to end well. The only answer to this situation is missile defense. Along with Japan, we should spare no expense to develop a functioning system. Also, by rattling our saber over missile defense we would encourage a grudgingly helping China to step up pressure on North Korea. The last thing they want is missile defense in Japan and the U.S. We tell China "you help us or else you get missile defense", get them to heavily lean on North Korea to give up nukes, and then build missile defense anyway. Missile defense would also decrease the utility of nukes for North Korea, making them somewhat less dependent on them (I know this is a stretch, but our options are few and small here).