Korean Wolf, No More

It’s that time of year—winter is staging a last stand, the United States and South Korea are playing their yearly war games, and North Korea is threatening the region. This time, though, Kim Jong-Il’s rogue state forces us to ask whether it is merely crying wolf again. With more pressing issues on its plate, the United States can not cater to North Korea’s pouting.

North Korea’s foreign relations policy comes off as the same tired charade. This time, North Korea has announced the start of preparations for a non-military rocket launch. The official news agency, says the communications satellite will be launched into orbit by the rocket, making North Korea “economically strong.”

The preposterousness of this claim must be noted. One satellite will not revive North Korea’s dysfunctional economic system. But even if it could, North Korea’s claims should still be met with great skepticism. There is nothing new about this “new” satellite—supposedly ushering in an exciting era for North Korea, it is instead strikingly reminiscent of 1998, when North Korea used the same claim as an excuse to test-fire a Taepodong-1 cruise missile over the territory of regional power Japan. Fresher in the public’s memory, in the summer of 2006, North Korea ignored the dismay of regional powers South Korea, Japan, and China by firing a long range Taepodong-2 missile feared at the time to have a capability of reaching the western United States. To North Korea’s embarrassment, and the world’s relief, that missile failed after forty seconds.

Of course, because North Korea’s announcement happens to coincide with joint military exercises by American and South Korean troops, North Korea has responded with predictable threats and the placement of its troops on full military alert. This is an over-reaction—the troop exercises are defensive in nature, preparing for the eventualities of an attack by North Korea. The exercises are ridiculous; it’s hard to imagine swarms of American and South Korean troops storming the border in the case of a North Korean attack. Yet can anything really be discounted as ridiculous when North Korea continues to posture as if war will happen any day now?

The United States has responded to North Korea’s latest moves with extremely diplomatic, cautious expressions of concern. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for North Korea to end its threats during a trip to the South Korean capital, Seoul, in late February. And after North Korea’s latest threats, the State Department’s special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, has taken his turn, calling the threats unproductive, especially as the United States was willing to reach out to the North Koreans and continue to build relations. These relations would presumably start with the negotiations from which Kim’s government withdrew in January.

Such remarks may be safe, but you can only play with crazy people for so long before working with them makes you crazy yourself. That point has been reached with North Korea. Washington has shown a willingness to talk with nations with which it has not always had strong relations, from Russia to potential Taliban members. Wasting time satisfying North Korea’s national Napoleon complex, however, is not worth the new administration’s efforts.

The possibility of conflict with North Korea is remote to nonexistent. It has fired missiles before and threatened war on many occasions. Even Kim knows that such a war would be disastrous for his nation, which barely functions economically even in peacetime. Clinton and the state department must let North Korea know that we are sick of playing the “cry wolf” game. Our military exercises will continue, and the government in Pyongyang can either grow up, or issue another statement to deaf ears. For now, North Korea has given the world no reason to take it seriously.


Alexander R. Konrad ’11, a Crimson editorial writer, is a history concentrator in Quincy House.