International Problem--North Korea

Kapp, Clare "South Africa failing people displaced by xenophobia riots." Lancet 371.9629 (2008): 1986-1987. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Nov. 2009.

This article focuses on North Korea and what lies ahead of them in the future. For the past two decades North Korea has been conducting a nuclear weapons program which has forced the rest of the world to keep a watchful eye on Kim Jong II and North Korea. Just recently it was discovered that North Korea performed missile and nuclear tests within the past few months. Obviously action must be taken, but how America should go about it is, of course, up for debate. Clare Kapp categorizes the U.S. policy makers into two categories, "In considering the North Korean nuclear question, U.S. policymakers and experts typically fall into two camps. The optimists believe that negotiating with Pyongyang will set North Korea on the path of Chinese-style political and economic reforms, help it become a "normal state," and convince it to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The pessimists insist that only relentless pressure will cause Pyongyang to denuclearize. The optimists (such as Christopher Hill, who once led U.S. negotiations with North Korea and is now ambassador to Iraq) favor talks and compromise. The pessimists (such as John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations) prefer coercive sanctions."

But what is not as heavily reported is the fact that North Korea relies on its nuclear weapons program very heavily, "Pyongyang cannot do away with these programs. That would mean losing both a powerful military deterrent and a time-tested tool of extortion. It would also relegate North Korea to being a third-rate country, on a par with Mozambique or Uganda." The important point to note here is that if North Korea simply stopped their nuclear testing they would almost instantly become just another 3rd world country. An alternative approach would be to attempt to reform the North Korean economy, similar to what the Chinese did. The problem with this is that North Korea would have to ease up on their stranglehold of their own civilians (censorship, mainly) which would result in many citizens fleeing to their Southern counterpart (South Korea). Realistically, major reforms would probably cause North Korea to fall flat on its face, but after that initial fall things would begin to change for the better.