The Wall Street Journal-20080118-A Paranoid Pyongyang Elicits Nuclear War Fears
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A Paranoid Pyongyang Elicits Nuclear War Fears
John Bolton continues to rely on a hope and a prayer that the U.S. and its allies can bring down North Korea's nuclear weapons program through increased economic and political pressure ("North Korea's True Colors," op-ed, Jan. 11). We must acknowledge that while Pyongyang happily gave up its decrepit weapons reactor, which had reached the end of its productivity, it will not give up the material or the bombs the reactor produced as long as Kim Jong Il remains in power. The challenge now is to assure that the North never launches its nuclear weapons. While the U.S. and South Korea retain a robust deterrent, what ought to concern us is war by inadvertence resulting from Pyongyang's fears of pre-emption or an intelligence failure.
Rather than isolate the hermit regime, as Mr. Bolton proposes, the U.S. would do well to normalize diplomatic relations to promote communication, resurrect the North-South crisis hotline and expand economic engagement. Those who would find such a course quixotic must respond to this question: Is a paranoid Pyongyang with a nuclear bomb on hair trigger preferable?
Bennett Ramberg
Los Angeles
(Mr. Ramberg served in the State Department's Bureau of Politico- Military Affairs in the George H.W. Bush Administration.)
