All I Want for Christmas Is a New North Korea Strategy

America ’s North Korea strategy is failing.The Trump administration ’s “maximum pressure” approach of increasingly rigid economic sanctions and military posturing has not slowed down North Korea’s missile and nuclear testing schedule. Since Trump took office in January 2017, Pyongyang has successfully testedtwodifferent types of intercontinental ballistic missiles, anew intermediate-range ballistic missile, asolid-fuel missile based off a submarine-launched design, and itsmost powerful nuclear device. The Trump administration hasconsistently opted to increase pressure on North Korea in response to these developments rather than critically examine whether or not such pressure will change the North ’s behavior.The critical flaw in the U.S. North Korea strategy is its unrealistic objective. Washington demandscomplete, verifiable, and irreversible nuclear disarmament and is not willing to engage in negotiations with Pyongyang unless the latter makes progress towards this objective.The current U.S. strategy requires offensively-oriented policy approaches in the pursuit of an unrealistic end goal. In order to achieve denuclearization, Washington must compel Kim Jong-un to part with his nuclear weapons by making the costs of possessing nukes unacceptably high. However, because Kim views nuclear weapons as necessary for the survival of his regime, he is willing to toleratevery high costs in order to keep his nuclear weapons. Short of going to war, it will be practically i...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs