Marcus Noland on Sanctions and Engagement

He makes several good points, but this is probably my favorite:

If I lived in Korea, I myself would also support the engagement policy. Engagement is very important as a tool to induce the fundamental changes of the North Korean regime. But from some time back, the South Korean government seems to have lost its perspective. Engagement is just a tool to achieving the goal of making changes in North Korea, but now it seems engagement itself has become the goal. Proper engagement must entail some conditions and reciprocal factors.

I would also favor engagement if there were any sign that it was reaching the people or changing North Korea for the better.  But as long as South Korea simply uses free money as a way to keep Kim Jong Il in power, it will accomplish that and nothing more.

3 Responses

  1. The hijacking of the sunshine policy would make a great book or dissertation -or the subject of a worthy parliamentary hearing should the GNP get back in power.

  2. I agree. I can actually see the argument that trade might change China faster than it will empower it to provoke a major war. Because the North Korean people have been left completely out of engagement with the North’s regime, there won’t be any change there.

    Unless we start attaching some strict conditions, that is.

    I’m all for engagement that includes the people of North Korea and is leading in the direction of more openness and transparency.

  3. I wonder just how important a role public-private investments in Gaeseong and at Mt. Geumgang have played in undermining or strengthening the ROK engagement strategy. From the last incident, when corporate owners lobbied the Blue House not to discontinue the Gaeseong project as a result of the October 9 nuke test, ROK businessmen act as if they are more dependent on the DPRK than Pyongyang is on Seoul. How can a program, which could ostensibly be used for leverage, ever fulfill that role if ROK politicians and corporate owners act so transparently desperate?

    Also, on a technical point, there’s an error message on every page about comments, and it always seems to read that you have 3 trackbacks on every page.

    Fatal error: Call to undefined function: blc_latest_comments() in /home/freekore/public_html/wp-content/themes/newsday-10/single.php on line 32

    I’m sure you see it, but the site looks even better without the snafus