Saturday, December 6, 2003
Writing in today's Boston Globe, Leon V. Sigal has an elegant and simple solution to the North Korean crisis - give them what they want.
Is he right? I don't know, but I do know there are serious problems with entering into agreements with governments who's word is worth less than nothing and just sort of hoping we can verify and enforce (which begs the question of what we would do if they didn't go along - exactly the situation we find ourselves in now), with entering into one-on-one negotiations that don't involve that country's neighbors, thus placing the onus of success or failure directly on us alone, on giving in to blackmail, on propping-up what may be one of the most nightmarish regimes in the world today, and on paying what amounts to reparations for the conflict so far.
Kim spelled out a sequence of simultaneous steps Pyongyang would take with Washington. It "will allow the refreeze of our nuclear facility and nuclear substance and monitoring and inspection of them from the time the United States has concluded a nonaggression treaty with the DPRK and compensated for the loss of electricity."
"Nonaggression treaty" is the North's infelicitous choice of words for a written pledge that the United States will not attack it, not interfere in its internal affairs, and not impede its economic development by continuing sanctions or discouraging aid and investment from South Korea and Japan. Next, it will settle the missile issue -- "put on ice its missile test-firing and stop its [missile] export" -- once the United States and Japan open diplomatic relations. Then, it "will dismantle [its] nuclear facility from the time the [light-water reactors promised under the Agreed Framework] are completed."
Does Pyongyang mean what it says? The surest way to find out is diplomatic give-and-take. That's why Tokyo and Seoul have urged Washington to make a counteroffer. That requires the Bush administration to do something it has not yet done -- decide what it wants most and what it would offer in return...
Paging The Marmot...
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