Fred Fry International: Update: The UN Cannot Save the North Koreans (So Stop Trying)

Wednesday, June 10

Update: The UN Cannot Save the North Koreans (So Stop Trying)

In the past I have advocated that we should not be talking to the North Koreans because no good can come from it. (See The UN Cannot Save the North Koreans (So Stop Trying) for one example.)

Now comes an article in today's Wall Street Journal which basically says the same thing:

When there is no diplomatic recognition to be traded in exchange for concessions, diplomats assume that talking is always a good idea because words cost nothing but can produce tangible results.

This time that is the wrong assumption. For years, the U.S., China, the Russian Federation, Japan and South Korea have been patiently negotiating with North Korea, offering economic aid, security guarantees, and the benefits of "normalization" in exchange for it abandoning its nuclear programs. South Korea provided advance payments in the form of investments, food aid and large cash gifts.

Thus over a period of years, while the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il continued to starve its own population as it accumulated more military equipment and repeatedly sold nuclear and missile technology to Iran and Syria, it was greatly rewarded diplomatically. Kim Jong Il's delegates sat alongside those of the U.S., China, Russia and Japan -- a huge concession in itself that added to the prestige of the regime. Every time the North Koreans committed a new outrage, from launching ballistic missiles over Japan to selling ballistic missiles to Iran, the response was to resume the talks, with no reduction in the concessions on offer and even some more gifts from South Korea.

This must now stop. The North Korean regime never yielded anything of significance in past negotiations, which have served nobody but them. This time, provocation must not be rewarded. Evidently, the North Korean aim is to evoke more attention, more offers of concessions, more gifts. They must receive nothing at all. Talking has failed utterly. Silence might yet persuade the North Koreans to improve their behavior. - WSJ

Not only should we not be talking to them, but the UN and other aid organizations should be pulled out of there as well.

After all, extortion through threats, 'resolved' through negotiation, have only brought bigger threats. The current reward for decades of talk is a country whose citizens are held hostage and the keeper of the hostages is now armed with a nuclear weapon, and is even threatening to use it. This is why unconditional surrender should have been the final solution to the North Korea problem. At the moment, that would involve collapsing the Government of the North. I think it can be done. It has not, because nobody wants to deal with the mess that would be left in it's wake. Well the mess is not going to get any smaller by waiting.

Video - Direct Link

Here is an ad noting the stupidity of appeasing the world's tyrants.