National Review on North Korea

I think they get it mostly right, particularly their sober opposition to Newt Gingrich’s call for bombing them (published in NRO), which predated a similar call by William Perry.

What this means is that the U.S. is probably stuck with Kim for a while to come. Our policy should accordingly be one of containing Kim’s regime and undermining its power. Perhaps the greatest danger is that North Korea will transfer its missile technology to other regimes that would use it to threaten us….

The last goal could be advanced by more serious enforcement of the Proliferation Securities Initiative, a U.S.-led effort to interdict transfers of banned weapon technology. In practice, the PSI has done almost nothing to stop North Korean arms shipments, possibly for fear of damaging the six-party talks. It’s time to cast such reservations aside. In addition, the U.S. should step up its already successful efforts to cut off North Korea’s overseas financial assets. If China, Russia, and South Korea are unwilling to bless outright sanctions, they should at least be expected to support these measures — and informed that obstinacy will seriously damage their standing with the U.S.

There was also this, for South Korea:

South Korea should be asked, in blunt terms, how long it expects the U.S. to defend it from the threat it helps perpetuate.

It’s astonishing that we still are.