North Korea Launches Missile

North Korea tested a surface-to-air missle. This is typical of how North Korea attempts, usually successfully, to extract concessions from the West. And the "West" is normally the United States. I was stationed in South Korea twice. During my first tour in the eighties, I was positioned on the DMZ. We had some interaction with the communists when there were talks between the North and the South. There was also some hooking and jabbing as the two sides postured against one another. The Korean frame of mind is one that is different from our own. One of the problems that we have when implementing foreign policy, is a failure to understand the state of mind of those with whom diplomatically engage.

Four considerations when trying to carry out diplomatic relations with the North Koreans is that: 1) they are a failed communist state, 2) they have no intention of stopping whatever it is they're doing because that is what gives them bargaining chips, 3) they have other partners in China, Iran, and Russia, and 4) North Korea doesn't do anything without approval from China and Russia--especially China.

When we engage North Korea, we usually threaten with economic sanctions (the economic instrument of national power). The problem with this course of action is that North Korea knows that they can turn to other nations for relief. So, this means that economic sanctions are not going to be effective.

North Korea rattles sabres every year over something to gain what it needs from the West. North Korea cannot feed itself, so it relies on us, at minimum, for food.

What should be our foreign policy toward North Korea? First we have to decide what is in our national interest, and, therefore, what actions we must take in the pursuit of our national interest. If the conclusion is that North Korea with a nuclear launch vehicle is unacceptable, then we have to take appropriate steps to counter that threat. Based on this conclusion, that means that we should have taken direct action against North Korea through the use of our military instrument of national power.

Using our military may seem to be drastic, but if another nation's actions are a direct threat to our national security then we have no other option. Now, we are hearing a lot of rhetoric from the politicians, especially the Republican ones who use this as an easy subject to pander about. Notice that they don't say what we should have done; they just harp on what the North Koreans did.

Bottom line, if the North Korean's action was a direct threat to the national security of the United States, then we should have destroyed their missle on the pad or in the air. We have the capability to have done either.