Recent commentary: What to do about North Korea?

How should the U.S. respond to N. Korean missile tests?

(published 10-Jul-2006, Appleton Post-Crescent)

The big question is this: Will nations like North Korea and Iran – both developing nuclear programs – become more belligerent, demanding, and aggressive as their nuclear capabilities come online? Looking back at Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union and Mao Zedong’s Red China, we see the same bellicosity, the same threats, the same aggressive stance as we see in Iran’s Ahmadinejad and North Korea’s Kim. We should definitely go ahead and spiff up missile defenses on Okinawa and in South Korea. We should definitely persuade Red China and South Korea to have a word with Kim about his nuclear program. But economic sanctions? Not sure that would mean much to such a trapdoor-spider nation. Just don’t go making sweet technology deals to appease Kim as Clinton did in 1994 (promised nuclear power plants) and 1998 (promised to launch North Korean satellites). Gawd! NO APPEASEMENT, OK?!?! And send Jimmy Carter anywhere but North Korea!