North Korea Back In The News
215 words.
Last we heard from North Korea (or, as the bloggers have suddenly started calling it, NoKo), they were test-firing medium- and long-range missiles over the Japan Sea. (The long-range missile failed.) Now, apparently they’re exploding nuclear weapons underground. There is some question from seismologists about whether it was really a nuclear explosion and not just a conventional explosion, though. If it was nuclear, it was really small. (Some people think suitcase-bomb small.)
I’m curious about two things. 1) What does North Korea want to negotiate for? They clearly want to force direct one-on-one negotiations with the United States, but for what? (Besides, what exactly does the United States produce in the way of trade goods anymore?)
And 2) What harm could we inflict on North Korea through sanctions? They are already completely isolated from the world, and their people are already essentially starving to death. All they’d have to do to get around the sanctions is work some trade deals with Iran and Venezuela, which they already have. So it seems like threatening sanctions is not much of a threat, especially in light of how well the threat of sanctions has been working with Iran.
Thomas Krehbiel writes The Krehbiel Strikes Back, a moderate commentary on news, media, politics, and culture. — Virginians, Vote No.
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