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Payoff With a Proviso: South Korea is promising to rebuild North Korea’s electricity grid and juice up the wires, but that would require South Korean control over the fuse box. I’m actually lukewarm on (as opposed to adamantly against) projects that give the outside world more leverage on North Korea. There are two problems with this: first, Kim Jong Il won’t allow it for that very reason; and second, who will exercise leverage over South Korea when it insists on paying protection money without conditions?

Leverage is good for bupkes if it’s clear ab initio that you’ll never use it.