Thinking outside the box with North Korea

by Jeff Gimm

Foreign Policy recently wrote an article detailing the futility of continuing negotiations with North Korea in the same manner as the past 15 years. Ever since the Framework of '94, North Korea has been backing out of most of the deals made with the United States. However, the United States is not alone in talking with North Korea. Japan, South Korea and China, as the North's neighbors, have all played a major role in any negotiations. This precipitates some of the problems in dealing with North Korea. China wants to keep the Government of the North afloat so there isn't a refugee crisis pouring over its borders. The U.S. can't take an extremely tough stance with the North as Seoul is not that far from the 32nd parallel. Japan is adamant in getting answers from the Northerners over a number of Japanese citizens supposedly kidnapped by Northern agents 30 years ago. All of these make coherent negotiations with the North near impossible. The author suggests a radical change in dealing with the North. He suggests that all relations be normalized, a peace treaty between the Koreas( there was no official treaty ending the Korean War, only a ceasefire) and a large economic package for the North. All this in exchange for the North to give up its nuclear ambitions and to remove some of the leverage that the North currently has.
This plan however will be nearly impossible to implement, as many in Washington, as well as the rest of the world would see little benefit in giving the North all of these things relying that the North would become more open instead.
While this plan may not be the best one, the author is correct in that the world needs a new way to negotiate with the North. The current method is clearly not getting anywhere.