North Korean control gets more shaky over the people and military while the military is eroding rapidly. Normally, the Pillsbury Nuke Boy could take the military option of attacking south to the nearby and vulnerable Seoul. But he is distracted by the shiny object of money and food that he sees within his grasp, so he hasn't used his military option while he has it. In time, it will the South Koreans who will have the military option of clearing out the artillery looming over Seoul.
I also continue to be amazed that the Left is angered about our revelations concerning Syrian-North Korean nuclear cooperation because it might anger the North Koreans. Our Left really does think this way.
But more to the point, the impact of the disclosure will perhaps lessen the worries of some hawks who think President Bush is about to make a flawed deal just to be able to claim he solved the problem (the way the 1994 agreement "solved" it):
Although Washington has made clear that the diplomatic initiative will continue, the serious accusation levelled against North Korea would require President George W. Bush's administration to impose such high verification standards on denuclearization efforts that Pyongyang may just walk away from the deal, according to the experts.
"I suspect what will happen is they will hold the North Koreans to a very high verification standard because they realize what a hard sell this is to Congress and that the North Koreans probably won't be able to do," said Michael Green, a top Asia hand in the first Bush administration.
"We can't simply say that it won't happen again and that's good enough, because the North Koreans have violated some significant proliferation red lines, and if there isn't some consequence for that, they are likely to do it again," he said.
Me? I didn't worry. I figure as long as we keep talking, the North Koreans will keep dying as we squeeze them and at some point the threat of North Korean military action becomes a thing of the past. But the act of talking will dangle the hope of our surrender and the mass shipment of goodies north long enough to dissuade the Pillsbury Nuke Boy from attacking while he has residual conventional military power left.
And now we can argue that we need more verification to get any agreement accepted at home. And North Korea will object and stall some more, hoping for the big payoff. So the talking will continue. And North Korea will keep dying.
Talk, talk. die, die.
