Will President Bush act now and take a strong stance against North Korea’s increasingly aggressive/erratic actions, or leave it to Obama to make it worse?
Here’s this from Gordon G. Chang at Contentions:
What’s going on in North Korea? This week, Pyongyang announced that international weapons inspectors would not be allowed to take samples of plutonium at its Yongbyon facility; slowed down the unloading of fuel rods there; told South Korea that it would close off its border on December 1; and restricted visitors from China, its only formal ally. These moves followed North Korea’s threat last month to turn its southern neighbor into “debris.”
Former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, blaming current President Lee Myung-bak, said he saw the possibility of “catastrophe.” Proponents of reconciliation with the North, like Kim, have always suggested that the only alternative to their soft approach was war on the Korean peninsula. That’s a false choice, however. Resolute polices are much more likely to produce peace than war. After all, tough policies in Seoul kept the North Koreans at bay from the armistice ending the Korean War in 1953 to the inauguration of Kim Dae Jung in 1998.
Lee Myung-bak has rejected the Sunshine Policy promoted by his two predecessors, Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo-hyun. At this point, it appears North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is trying to intimidate Seoul with reckless rhetoric. Lee, however, is standing firm.
He can do so, but only if Washington backs him up. For the last several years, the Bush administration has adopted a soft line, much in keeping with the thinking of Kim Dae Jung. The Obama administration could do real damage if it continues current American policy and thereby undercuts President Lee. So it is up to President Bush at this moment to reverse course by supporting Seoul with rhetoric of his own. And Dubya can refuse to be intimidated by calling his own time-out in the denuclearization process.
There is nothing inherently wrong in talking to the North Koreans, signing agreements with them, and even providing great amounts of assistance. Yet we can achieve stable relations with Pyongyang only after we show firmness to demonstrate that we cannot be bluffed by one of the planet’s most fragile regimes. So it’s time for us to tell Kim Dae Jung to mind his own business and to start helping a crucial ally, Lee Myung-bak. Until we do that, Kim Jong Il will keep on making threats. And if we permit the miserable runt to destabilize the Korean peninsula, one day there may really be catastrophe in one of the world’s most dangerous regions.
In a related matter, did Israel succeed in another Osirak last September? All signs point to yes.
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