Why all the US hot air on a nuclear North Korea is counterproductive
Doug Bandow says the US can’t halt North Korea’s nuclear programme without risking a catastrophic war and should stick with the containment and deterrence strategies that have worked for the past seven decades instead
In fact, Pyongyang’s past behaviour proves no such thing. Selling conventional weapons is not the same as marketing nuclear technology; dealing with governments is different from supplying non-state actors. Selling nuclear materials is less likely when major powers target such behaviour. Moreover, North Korea’s record is no worse than that of the Soviet Union and China.
North Korea exposed: everyday life in world’s most reclusive nation
If the US administration fears nuclear sales so much, its emphasis on sanctions is counterproductive. Stepping on the North’s economic windpipe forces the Kim regime to take desperate steps to breathe. Pursue negotiations which leave North Korea a less dangerous way to raise revenue, and it would probably choose that path.
