As Yglesias notes, it’s uncanny how too many conservative pundits continue to believe that every problem is a nail and the only tool the United States possesses is a hammer. Now, like everyone else, I have no idea how we should deal with North Korea. And even that assumes that there is some kind of a deal that can be made. One thing I would ask, however, is that since NK seems to rather enjoy its pariah status – in as much as any paranoid regime can be said to enjoy anything – one wonders if increasing or tightening sanctions on NK is the most sensible tactic. In some sense, might this not actually confirm the North Korean diagnosis of their situation and actually make them more, not less, determined to annoy the rest of the international community?
If that were the case – and, to repeat, I don’t say it is – then the alternatives, counter-intuitive though it may be and thus always vulnerable to accusations of being daft, deluded or simply trying too hard, might be to either a) ignore North Korea and deprive it of the attention it seeks or b) smother it with kindness by reducing and relaxing sanctions in the hope that bringing NK into the international community will hasten its end.
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