Barry Talks! : Common Sense for Uncommon Times

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

If I Were President, How I'd Handle North Korea

Lots of suggestions around the Internet about what to do about North Korea, from the Hoover Institute to Tacitus. But so far all the suggestions are either unrealistic or just plain wimpy (like Rowen's).
If I sat in the Oval Office (what a pleasant thought) I'd take the following actions:
Operation Aggressive Compassion
1. Following in the footsteps of human rights activist Norbert Vollertsen, the United States would launch 20 million balloons with transistor radios attached into North Korea. We would drop so many of these that it would be impossible for the authorities to confiscate all of them.
2. With these radios North Koreans could listen to stations in South Korea, Japan -- or any number of broadcasts originated by the US and retransmitted by hundreds of buoys floating just off the North Korean coast. These broadcasts would be propaganda-free; and among other programming the US would invite all South Koreans to send messages to their relatives in the North.
3. Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) the United States would immediately begin airdropping food shipments directly to the people in North Korea. These shipments would be substantial, would be nourishing, would be native Korean food (not Big Mac's!) and would be wrapped in messages of greeting and good will from the people of the United States.
4. Any attempt by North Korea to interdict or shoot down these UAV's would be met with force: fighters would be shot down and anti-aircraft batteries would be destroyed.
5. The United States would sign a treaty with China guaranteeing that in the event of the collapse of the North Korean government, US military forces will not advance north of the 38th Parallel. In return, China would immediately open its border to North Korea. The United States would subsidize the creation of an "underground railroad" in China, meaning, halfway houses and guaranteed rapid patriation of refugees to South Korea.
Operation Cage the Rabid Dog
1. All ships entering North Korea would be subject to inspection; any containing weapons of any sort would be turned away.
2. Any ships leaving North Korea with illegal drugs or weapons of any kind would be destroyed; their crews would be returned to their home country.
3. The United States would let it be known that any country that has dealings with North Korea, economic or otherwise, would be regarded with displeasure, i.e., would face sanctions.
These policies would cost, in the grand scheme of things, virtually nothing (certainly a lot less than $87 billion!). In the short term the humanitarian aspects would be worthy of us as a Great Power and in the longer term (a year or two) could provoke the collapse of world's last Stalinist dictatorship without a new Korean War.
That in turn would dramatically increase the security of the planet, would allow the US to withdraw all of its military forces from South Korea, and would improve the lot of millions of starving Koreans. From every conceivable angle, political, moral, strategic, even economic, the reunification of the Koreas under a truly democratic government would be an absolute good.

Comment (10) #