"CLICK YOUR HEELS THREE TIMES AND SAY, NORTH KOREA WANTS PEACE"

The font has burst forth again – in today’s New York Times, we find an editorial from a David Kang, professor of business and government at Dartmouth who thinks the way to fix the North Korea issue is through incentives, not intimidation. He thinks we are being to pushy with the poor pinkos, I mean North Koreans. I don’t think this professor, tenured I’m sure, therefore untouchable, has any idea what is going on there. I think he feels North Korea is “going nuclear” (pronounce Nuke-u-lar, thank you very much) in an effort to be respected and feared by the US. Kang (not the alien from The Simpsons, though I can’t help but think of that every time I type his name) thinks that this whole problem is just between the US and Korea; he can’t understand why China, Japan and Russia should be involved.

“Furthermore, it does not matter how many countries are at the negotiating table, because the conflict is primarily between the United States and North Korea. What matters are the policies of these two countries, and whether they are willing to negotiate. If the United States and North Korea do not resolve their differences, the presence of China — or Russia, South Korea or Japan — will not lead to a different outcome.”

Even on the 58th anniversary of the nuking of Hiroshima, Kang doesn’t seem to understand the concept of nuclear fallout. Hopefully these other countries have a bit more understanding than Kang and will work very hard at the table to make sure of a different outcome.

Kang also comes out with this:

“North Korea clearly does not wish to go nuclear: if it wanted to, it would have done so long ago. North Korea has consistently maintained that its foremost desire in return for scrapping its nuclear program is a security guarantee from the United States.”

Huh, North Korea has been working full speed to go nuclear, where in the world does the statement, “North Korea clearly does not wish to go nuclear” come from?

In sum, what Kang is saying is that North Korea has no nuclear ambitions, it just wants to be respected by the United States and the US alone. If we would just give them incentives, they would give up their nukes.

Dude, have you ever heard of the Jimmy Carter North Korea deal that got him a Nobel Peace Prize? We threw incentives (reactors, yearly payoffs) at North Korea to get them to drop their program. Seems to me that didn’t work, North Korea took the money and went right on with their nuke program. Why in the world do you think we should try that again? Kang must be the kind of guy who keeps touching the glowing red stove over and over again to see if it’s still hot. Thankfully, George Bush is more intelligent than that.