Some Analysts Apparently are Idiots

After North Korea set off a nuke and testing a long-range missile, South Korea withdrew from the Kaesong project north of the DMZ that matched South Korean businesses with cheap North Korean labor. The project earned North Korea a lot of money. And then "some analysts" turned the stupid dial to eleven.

Oh, good grief:

Some analysts have said that without Kaesong as leverage, South Korea's ability to influence change in the North has now evaporated.

Leverage? What leverage? Do you mean that in the future if North Korea threatens to test a missile or blow off a nuke, then South Korea can't threaten to cancel the project to get North Korea to back down??

If I may be so bold, North Korea's oppressive government, nuclear program, and missile program all suggest that South Korea has zero ability to influence change in North Korea.

Or at least it is a value not much greater than zero, as Austin Bay rightly suggests:

The latest closure of the jointly-administered South Korea-North Korea Kaesong Industrial Region illustrates the limitations of over-reliance on "soft power" -- in this case, Seoul's well-intentioned economic and diplomatic power-- when confronting a vicious dictatorship that relies on "hard power" military might and terror for survival and prestige.

God save us from some analysts.