My reaction to the Washington

My reaction to the Washington Post article on North Korea was similar to yours, Rocket Man. The Post’s experts provided nothing resembling a solution to the mess that President Bush inherited from his predecessor. In assessing the efficacy of the Adminstration’s announced policy, one must define what success means. The announced policy is not likely to cause North Korea to disarm. But it might succeed in the same way that our containment policy towards the Soviet Union did. In that scenario, North Korea would have its nuclear capacity, but wouldn’t use it. Eventually, the regime would collapse and the peninsula would be re-unified as a capitalist democracy. In my view, though, real success may turn on whether or not we are able to prevent North Korea from selling nuclear technology to our enemies in the Middle East. This will not be easy given the parlous state of the North Korean economy and dictator’s natural animosity towards the United States.