North Korea: Yearning for Dialogue

Two days ago the world woke up to the news that Peoples Republic of North Korea had successfully tested a nuclear bomb against the will of the United Nations and the international community.

According to the French estimation, the detonation was not all that big. However, Russian intelligence suggests that the device was probably larger that the bomb dropped in Hiroshima by the US to end the World War II. Still uncertain are the US intelligence and military sources who say it will take up to a couple of days to get precise reading to judge the strength of the tested device. These are the same sources who, two months ago announced that all state-of-the-art technology and satellite monitoring systems were beamed at N. Korea to provide close surveillance and record every activity round the clock.

The media is now all over this new development and so are the politicians and world leaders alike.

These developments however, should not come as a surprise to any one who has been closely following the news from the Korean peninsula.

When the Clinton administration left office six years ago, the regime in Pyongyang was already showing signs of stubbornness hence, the comprehensive plans left by the Clinton administration to address this issue.

Under the Clinton Administration, the US was directly engaged in negotations with N. Korea even though the honesty and openness of the later was very much in question. Two things were however, clear - Pyongyang was extorting and blackmailing Washington and, there were no further nuke developments going on.

Regardless of how one looks at this scenario, everything was under control and the Korean peninsula was not slowly slipping into a dangerous nuclear playground that it has so unfortunately become now.

Time and experience has shown that Kim Jong Il is more concerned with the survival of his dictatorial regime than trying to acquire nukes and other weapons of mass destruction. And his plight for survival was not jolted an inch when N. Korea was included in the axis of evil alongside Iraq and Iran. Then soon came the invasion of Iraq and the ultimate ouster of its leaders.

And now we have the hostile back and forth rhetoric between Washington and Tehran.

Since its inclusion in the Axis of Evil, N. Korea has repeatedly tried to negotiate its security directly with the US. But the administration's policy of not engaging directly with N. Korea has only driven the later further away and increased Korea's need to bolster its security especially in the light of the invasion of Iraq. Certainly Jong Il does not want to become another Saddam. To the credit of this administration, I should mention that it briefly talked to N. Korea before the breakdown of the six party talks.

I think the latest development is a direct result of this administration's failure to directly engage N. Korea. It will take a little bit of humility on the part of this administration to change direction in its ill informed policy towards N. Korea.

N. Korea's need for food and basic social survival amenities for its citizens is greater than the need for nukes or weapons of mass destruction. As a matter of fact, it does not need nukes at all. Kim Jong Il only wants assurance that the US will not invade his country to change the regime.