A Failed N. Korea Policy

The disarray in U.S. policy toward North Korea grows more evident and more troubling each week, with the Clinton administration’s efforts to “engage” Pyongyang on a variety of fronts producing little more than a steady succession of failures and embarrassments. The world’s most powerful nation finds itself being jerked around by one of the world’s most despicably regressive regimes, and no one in Washington has any clear idea what to do about it.

The attempt to persuade North Korea to back off on its long-range missile development program and sales of missiles to such customers as Syria and Iran has made no progress. On Aug. 31 the regime launched a three-stage missile in an effort to put a satellite into orbit. That goal failed, but by design or otherwise the rocket flew over Japan, a crude demonstration that a key American ally now lies within range of a hostile and unpredictable country. Worse may be on the way. The CIA warns that North Korea may soon test a missile with a range of 3,600 miles, one capable of reaching Hawaii and Alaska.

A generous U.S. program to provide food to famine-stricken North Korea has produced no political dividends. There is no way to be sure that food, including 300,000 tons of wheat approved for shipment last month, is reaching those in greatest need. Last week the French relief agency Doctors Without Borders withdrew the last of its workers from North Korea, its humanitarian efforts to treat the sick and hungry thwarted by the regime’s interference. Along with other relief organizations, the French agency has been prevented from verifying that donated food is properly distributed, strengthening suspicions that North Korea is funneling most food aid to the military and other props of Kim Jong Il’s regime.

Last week President Clinton diverted $15 million from nonproliferation and anti-terrorism programs to buy heavy fuel oil for North Korea. Under a 1994 agreement, the United States promised to arrange for the Pyongyang regime to get 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year. In addition, Washington godfathered a plan to provide the regime with two light-water nuclear reactors; in exchange, Pyongyang shut down two old nuclear reactors from which it was suspected of extracting plutonium. Clinton acted after Congress, angry over the North Korean missile firing, refused to appropriate any more money for oil purchases.

Has the oil program brought the United States any advantage? The earlier answer--that it is keeping Pyongyang from developing nuclear weapons--increasingly lacks credibility. Recent satellite reconnaissance has discovered a huge underground facility in North Korea that could house equipment for developing nuclear weapons. The United States has asked to inspect the site. The chances of that happening are remote.

A policy that is demonstrably failing in its key objectives ought not to be doggedly pursued simply because no one can think of anything better to do. Washington has been feeding and fueling North Korea at a time when even its virtually impenetrable secretiveness can no longer hide profound systemic weaknesses. In return the United States has got less than nothing. Not only has Washington failed to leverage its aid to win any significant political concessions, but North Korea’s unremitting duplicity has left the United States looking foolish. The other day the State Department warned of “very negative consequences” unless North Korea changed its missile testing and export policies. It’s time to put those consequences into force. It’s time to start cutting American losses in North Korea.