In the WSJ: What Obama Should Say to North Korea

On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Melanie Kirkpatrick sees an opportunity for Barack Obama’s “tear down this wall” moment:

In September, as required under 2004 legislation, Mr. Obama named his special envoy for North Korea human rights, Robert King, a former Capitol Hill staffer. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said, “We’re deeply concerned about the situation in North Korea, particularly the plight of North Korean refugees” in China. Human rights, he said, is a “big priority.”

If that’s so, here’s a suggestion: When he’s in Seoul this month, Mr. Obama could meet with refugees and hear their horror stories of life in their homeland. Even better, he could visit the offices of Radio Free Asia, Voice of America or Free North Korea Radio (run by refugees) and broadcast a message of support to the North Korean people themselves.

The argument against speaking out about these things used to be that it would be harmful to our nuclear diplomacy, but more recently, we’ve seen that North Korea is rational enough to negotiate at expedient moments, notwithstanding — maybe even because of — sanctions and outside pressure. None of the bold statements President Bush made during his first term prevented the North Koreans from attending six-party talks, or from signing deals with the Bush Administration in 2005 or 2007 (though for other reasons, the North Koreans never negotiated in good faith, and no quantity of gold stars and cookies will change that).

The fact that President Bush also missed his own “tear down this wall” moment doesn’t get Obama off the hook for not speaking out. Bush hadn’t a fraction of Obama’s gift for oratory. If Obama’s great gift is his power to inspire, and if North Korea is still saying that it will never disarm, wouldn’t this be an ideal moment to put that gift to good use, and even arguably to make a balloon payment on a Nobel Prize that as of today, he obviously hasn’t earned?