North Korea's nuclear blackmail pays dividends

Daily Yomiuri Online ^ | October 6, 2007 | Ichiro Ue Yomiuri Shimbun

[Schnucki]

A joint declaration signed Thursday by the leaders of South and North Korea was indicative of Pyongyang's aim of ensuring the survival of Kim Jong Il's regime by interlocking the six-party talks with bilateral relations.

North Korea has used its nuclear weapons program to intimidate the international community into recognizing the regime of Kim Jong Il and ensure its survival.

The blueprint for the regime's survival planned by the North Korean leader is surprisingly simple. North Korea rushed a nuclear test in October last year after having implemented an aggressive development of nuclear weapons. Pyongyang then banked on securing improved ties with the international community, especially the United States--which the country has had hostile relations with for decades--in exchange for abandoning its nuclear ambitions.

Using the improved ties as leverage, North Korea would then glean investment and economic aid from many countries and rebuild its crumbling economy. But other key points in the agreement from the second South-North summit meeting--the last one was held seven years ago--were cooperation between Seoul and Pyongyang for officially ending the Korean War, and progress in South-North economic cooperation.

Establishing detente is connected to improving ties between Pyongyang and Washington. And the key lies in the United States' Trading with the Enemy Act.

The United States implemented the act in 1917 during World War I. It stipulates gradual restrictions and prohibition on foreign exchange transactions, trade or the transfer of assets with enemy countries.

The United States applied the act against North Korea during the Korean War, which started in June 1950. Though a ceasefire accord was signed in July 1953, the two Koreas are still technically at war.

Accordingly, the United States will continue to treat North Korea as an enemy state until the two Koreas sign a peace accord.

As long as the U.S. dollar is the world's key currency, North Korea can never make a full-fledged entry into the global market while seen as an enemy of Washington.

This is why Pyongyang has persistently insisted that the United States stop applying the act to North Korea and remove the country from a list of terrorism-sponsoring nations, and has strongly urged that the Korean War, the cause of Washington's treatment, should officially end.

A joint document from the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, released the day before the signing of the South-North declaration, contained phrases closely connected to the issue.

This includes the passage: "Recalling the commitments to begin the process of removing the designation of the DPRK [North Korea] as a state sponsor of terrorism and advance the process of terminating the application of the [U.S.] Trading with the Enemy Act with respect to the DPRK, the United States will fulfill its commitments to the DPRK in parallel with the DPRK's actions [for abandoning nuclear ambitions]."

The South-North declaration states, "South and North Korea will make joint efforts for the smooth implementation of the...six-nation nuclear agreements."

But this phrase, for North Korea, means a U.S. promise for rewards to Pyongyang, not a pledge to abandon nuclear ambitions.

During the six-party talks, the United States lowered hurdles over the nuclear issue for North Korea. At the South-North summit meeting, Pyongyang succeeded in obtaining a promise from Seoul for economic cooperation to build an economic community for the two Koreas.

Kim Jong Il's strategy of using the nuclear threat as leverage for his regime's survival seems to be steadily progressing.

But questions remained over whether North Korea can rebuild its economy without changing its crusty, authoritarian regime that places priority on military affairs, which the country's leaders themselves refer to as "military-first politics." There was an interesting episode during the South-North summit meeting.

On Wednesday, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told his staff, "I sensed a feeling of distrust and opposition [from the North Korean side] toward the phrase 'reform and open-up.'" He apparently made the remark because the North Koreans insisted that though they wanted more economic aid, the joint projects should be managed in North Korea's socialist style.

Though North Korea wants economic aid and investment, they will bring an influx of capitalistic thinking and may shake up the Kim regime. Perhaps North Korea's leaders have the fable of the Trojan horse in the back of their minds.

If North Korea aims to survive in an economic war in which its enemy has shifted from military strength to economic power, political reform is unavoidable.

Does Kim understand this? Or does he intend to keep his nuclear ambitions intact until the last minute as a deterrent against hostile policies toward North Korea by economically strong countries?

The international community is watching whether Kim will abandon his nuclear programs as the basic premise to accepting North Korea into international circles.

News reports heard in Pyongyang by reporters accompanying the South Korean president were full of topics about the South-North summit meeting as a big project between the two countries of the same ethnic origin. But details of the six-nation talks agreement, for which North Korea will hand over its tiger cub--its nuclear development programs--had not been reported in Pyongyang as of Thursday night.

[Domandred]

Ping for morning reading.

[Lancey Howard]

All this for North Korea exploding a “dirty” bomb on its own soil?
Maybe they should REALLY show us a thing or two and explode a dozen more on their own soil, lol.