N. Korea: No ‘Reward’ for Totalitarianism

Re “A Reward Approach to North Korea,” Commentary, May 3: James Goodby argues that the only way to peace with hyper- totalitarian North Korea is to gradually induce “societal change,” but other than the usual arms control negotiation methods there’s nothing really in his commentary stating how societal change would happen. The Clinton administration tried for eight years to do this “all carrot, no stick” approach, and what it brought was a perpetuation of Kim Jong Il’s Big Brother regime and a lot of weapons development programs that went into hiding when the money showed up and came back out when the money dried up.

Most of us refer to this kind of behavior as extortion. Using a carrot to get North Korea to stop developing weapons or reform its own politics (or lack thereof) will never work because there is no incentive on Kim’s part to change. The “Dear Leader” is frankly not interested in whether his people starve or if they have relations with the outside world. He likes North Korean society the way it is now, and the only thing that will ever really change that society will be to get rid of this despicable despot. Everything else is just talk.

Shawn Dudley

San Marino