Stopping Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Nuclear Weapons and U.S. Options

   By Craig Eisendrath, Chairman of PNA

    With its recent detonation of two nuclear devices, North Korea has become increasingly menacing. It is not clear if the nuclear devices are technically ready for rocket launch though North Korea is pursuing greater missile capacity. As time goes on, if North Korea is not stopped, then it could soon have the ability to strike against Hawaii and eventually the American mainland. Proposed steps to impose sanctions, by the United States, Russia, China, Japan, England, France and South Korea, do not involve forced interception of North Korean ships, or any economic measures which are likely to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Although Kim Jong-il has not yet officially stepped down, it is likely that the country is presently being ruled by his 25-year-old son, Kim Jong-un. This change of leadership offers little promise of policy change. In addition, North Korea is presently holding hostage two American television journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

    After years of aggression and conciliation, North Korea today seems determined, no matter what the cost, to be a nuclear power. The Project for Nuclear Awareness believes that it would still be possible to negotiate an agreement whereby North Korea gave up its nuclear capacity, but only with major incentives including full diplomatic recognition, the end of the Korean War, a declaration of non-aggression by the big powers, guarantees of food and oil, and a regional security agreement which would ease North Korea's anxieties. In exchange for these concessions, we should insist on intrusive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency and automatic sanctions which are far more effective than the ones presently in place.

    If North Korea does not accept such an offer, it would mean that North Korea has dropped out of the negotiation process altogether and is set on being a nuclear power and a member of the nuclear club. Of course, Pyongyang is doing this at an enormous price. North Korea lacks the means to feed its own people and the country is wracked by starvation. Food aid delivered as an incentive for nuclear negotiation could be critical.

    Could the United States live with a proven unstable and unreliable state fully armed with nuclear weapons and rockets capable of hitting targets in the United States? This is the great dilemma which the Obama administration presently faces: does it act to disarm North Korea now before Kim Jong-il's weapons program is fully realized, or, if negotiations fail, does it acquiesce in accepting North Korea as a nuclear power? Time will tell.

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