North Korea Next

Increasingly, President Bush belies the criticism of pundits and Europeans that he is conducting a unilateral foreign policy. NATO has taken over the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, and 30 countries now participate in some fashion in Iraq.[1]

Increasingly, President Bush belies the criticism of pundits and Europeans that he is conducting a unilateral foreign policy. NATO has taken over the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, and 30 countries now participate in some fashion in Iraq.[1]

Perhaps countries have begun to ask who would benefit if America took its hyperpower and went home. Iraq? Afghanistan? Pakistan? No. Would totalitarianism and Islamic radicalism benefit? You bet. Realpolitik requires them to acknowledge that America’s declaration of war against terrorists and the states that harbor and support them holds the potential for a safer, more stable, less radical world – in the long run, if not immediately. Slowly in most cases, grudgingly in some, they are joining the fight in their own interest.

Northern Asia is next place the U.S. has to bring reluctant countries together. In an ironic twist, many of those that lambasted the administration for “unilateralism” in Iraq now demand that we negotiate unilaterally to reverse the failed American bribery scheme to keep North Korea from acquiring nuclear capabilities. The President wisely made Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton [2] his point man to bring regional partners along and Mr. Bolton has succeeded in forming the group of five plus one.[3]

Mr. Bolton’s credits include spearheading the reversal of UN Res. 3379 (“Zionism is Racism”), withdrawal from the ABM Treaty to permit America to plan for its own defense, and steady progress in defending American troops from the International Criminal Court. He has worked tirelessly to convince the Russians of the threat that would be posed by a nuclear Iran. He is doing the same with North Korea simply by telling the truth. “Kim Jong Il … has not had to endure the consequences of his failed policies. While he lives like royalty … he keeps hundreds of thousands of his people locked in prison camps with millions more mired in abject poverty, scrounging the ground for food. For many in North Korea, life is a hellish nightmare.” And for other countries, North Korea is a hellish threat.

Pyongyang’s reply included such diplomatic niceties as, “We have not yet found out such rude human scum as Bolton … Such human scum and bloodsucker is not entitled to take part in the talks.” And, in light of his “political vulgarity and psychopathological condition,” the North Korean government has “decided not to consider him as an official of the U.S. administration any longer, nor to deal with him.”

In our view Mr. Bolton should lead the American delegation. North Korea is as much a threat to our future as al-Qaeda, and our partners in this negotiation will be well served by an American official as straightforward and committed to regional stability as he.

[1] – Albania, Azerbaijan, Britain, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, El Salvador, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain and Ukraine.

[2] – Mr. Bolton is on leave from JINSA’s Board of Advisors.

[3] – The U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, plus North Korea.