What’s new, North Korea?

About two weeks ago, our beloved hermit kingdom launched what it claimed was a satellite, declaring that it too had entered the space age. When no one detected the alleged satellite passing through the atmosphere and began to speculate that it was after all a cover for a missile test, North Korea began its all too familiar routine: blame the outside world for plotting against it, announce that it is pulling out of the six-party talk and will restart its nuclear programme. Frankly Mr Kim, as a movie fanatic yourself, aren’t you tired of the same outcome playing again and again?

As a matter of fact, North Korea has been playing its nuclear card every time it hopes to gain more bargaining power in the negotiation table, much like we use wild cards in our favorite board games. Fortunately for Mr Kim and his servile followers, it always works and so, he has become bolder as time passes.

In response to the same tactic employed by a particular player over and over again, we usually develop strategies to counter him. Everyone knows that but for some reasons or another, the top-notch negotiators representing the other 5 countries (or the world if I may) have not been doing that. The outcome: Mr Kim’s continuous success in holding the entire world hostage and the frequent on-off nuclear disarmament talks, which for your information is proceeding at a pace slower than snail when it is on.

To prevent further waste of resources and time, I believe it is worthwhile to consider exerting more pressure on Mr Kim’s regime. As a start, I thought it is good to demand more concrete steps from North Korea in return for keeping our side of the bargain. For example, instead of requesting that it shuts down its nuclear facility, why not ask North Korea to tear down some core buildings in the complex. By doing so, even if it decides to walk out from the negotiation, it will not be easy to restart its nuclear programme. The blowing up of the cooling tower a few months ago is definitely a step in the right direction.

Depending on North Korea’s response, we may decide to stay the course or exert even more pressure. We must send a message to Mr Kim that enough is enough and the world will not fall for his deceit again. However, there must certainly be a limit to the amount of pressure that we can apply on him. Extremely hawkish attitude such as removing Mr Kim by force is a definite no-no because of its grave consequences. North Korea without Mr Kim may descend into a state of anarchy worse than Iraq and Afghanistan. In this regard, it is better to deal with one known maniac than countless unknown clowns. Right, Mr Kim?