There is by now a formula to it so familiar it might even qualify as reassuring to Pyongyang. Our leaders condemn, protest, and with a diplomatic delicacy that sounds ever more hallucinatory, they declare in the face of obvious realities that what is happening must not happen, and they invite North Korea to mind its manners.
I especially like statements that what North Korea does is "unacceptable," when the sainted international community obviously accepts North Korea's status and path.
If I was writing a story of good versus evil about this issue, North Korea would of course be in the evil role.
My hero might give the North Koreans an ultimatum: In 24 hours (or whatever time period it would take North Korea to prepare a nuclear missile for launch minus 4 hours), America will begin a bombardment of Pyongyang and every other place where the elite might flee.
And the only way to stop the bombardment that will not end in time to save any member of the elite, is to hand over the corpse of Kim Jong-Un and then, within a week, have his replacement show up at the DMZ to negotiate the end of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, with trucks of nuclear equipment and bus loads of nuclear scientists and technicians in a convoy that will proceed to South Korea where they will reside forever.
Would anybody in North Korea bend before that threat and deliver the price of standing our bombers and missiles down?
Alas, in a story the ending is written to suit the author's taste. And I don't know if in reality I would write the ending or Kim Jong-Un would.
Pity. It would be a grand story.
Maybe the best thing to do when North Korea tests something is not say anything at all and make the North Koreans wonder why we aren't repeating the ritual but unconvincing denunciations.
Perhaps I'm on to something:
Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the United Nations, said there was "no point" in holding a fruitless emergency Security Council session, warning that another weak council resolution would be "worse than nothing" in light of the North's repeated violations.
Just stop reacting with words and focus on how to execute a strike campaign. We'll see if China would prefer that to dealing with their little pet psycho.
