Deja Vu on the Korean Peninsula.

• Author: Sylvester, John

North Korea is once again misbehaving. In quick sequence, it apparently sunk a South Korean warship and certainly has shelled a South Korean island off North Korea's shore. Despite hand wringing, the dilemma for Seoul and Washington is punishing North Korea without broadening the problem and bringing war to the peninsula.

Bandow notes that North Korea has a huge army, but its conscripts are of uncertain quality and its weapons are inadequate. "The South only has about seven hundred thousand men under arms, but they are better trained and deploy better weapons." He points out that the Republic of Korea has forty times the GDP and twice the population of the North. Why then, he asks, should we subsidize South Korea's defense. Let the South defend itself.

Isolationists on our political right and pacifists on our left would agree with him. That was President Carter's view when he came into office. Still, he backed down quickly when facing the realities of our East Asian interests.

As a balance to Chinese superpower and a check on North Korean bellicosity, most East Asian countries, particularly Japan, want the American military in the area (although not necessarily in their backyard). Any signs of American retreat from the area create instant nervousness and the thought that East Asians should perhaps heed America less and China more.

Kim Jong Il and his cohorts are strange indeed...