Sticks "Trump" carrots for North Korea.

• Author: Marsh, Gerald E.
• Position: Worldview

"If the U.S. could make it clear to China that the consequence of inaction [concerning the curbing of North Korea] would be a nuclear-armed Japan, that might be an adequate incentive."

NORTH KOREA'S fixation on nuclear weapons began just after World War n. By 1947, Korea no longer was occupied by the Japanese--and Chinese influence had waned. In 1948, South Korea officially was recognized by the General Assembly of the United Nations, and both it and North Korea were given full membership in the General Assembly in 1991. In 1950, North Korea, under Kim Il-sung, with the acquiescence of the Soviet Union, invaded South Korea. This was shortly after China's Chiang Kai-shek, a U.S. ally, was forced by Mao Tse-tung to flee to Taiwan with 1,000,000 or so followers, much to the detriment of the Taiwanese. South Korea had as its ally the U.S., while North Korea had both the Chinese and the Soviets.

In January 1953, Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower came into office. At that time, there already had been two years of nonproductive peace talks, during which the Korean front line corresponded to what is known as the DMZ or demilitarized zone. Eisenhower threatened to use nuclear weapons in North Korea and China, if necessary, to end the Korean War. The armistice was achieved shortly thereafter on July 27,1953.

North Korea views this act by Pres. Eisenhower as a form of nuclear blackmail. As put by Foreign Minister Pak Song-chol in August 1962 when speaking with Soviet Ambassador Vasily Moskovsky in Pyongyang: "The Americans ... blackmail the people with their nuclear weapons and, with their help, rule on these continents and do not intend to leave. Their possession of nuclear weapons and, the lack thereof in our hands, objectively helps them, therefore, to eternalize their rule. They have a large stockpile and we are to be forbidden even to think about the manufacture of nuclear weapons."

Today, the world is faced with the results of this history. The greatest threat is a nuclear standoff among North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, and the U.S.. a standoff whose stability will be far more unreliable than our Cold War experience with nuclear deterrence. Should North Korea succeed in developing light enough nuclear weapons that could be carried on Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) or Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs), South Korea and Japan will develop and deploy missile defenses. Once North Korea shows, through complete testing of their...