How Will Obama Deal with North Korea and Their Nuclear Weapons?

North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and Obama's Challenge
Is all really lost in the effort to deny North Korea nuclear weapons? If those efforts are limited merely to finger-pointing and assigning blame, perhaps so. President Obama has tried to blame the Bush administration for North Korea's nuclear mischief, but that mischief actually began during the Clinton administration, which had a more conciliatory approach to North Korea along the lines that Obama advocates.

When the Bush administration did begin engaging in the kind of direct bilateral diplomacy that Obama advocates, it was met with intransigence, noncompliance and brinksmanship from North Korea. The lesson for the Obama administration should be that officials must not be too eager to compromise, which only rewards bad behavior and undermines negotiating leverage. What's needed is an approach to denuclearization that does not reward blatant disobedience and disregard for previous agreements.

Above all, North Korea must not be rewarded when it violates negotiated agreements and international requirements. For North Korea nuclear weapons must come at a price it cannot afford. The Obama administration also would be well advised to deepen ties-especially economic-with South Korea, our key ally on the peninsula. Congress needs to approve the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which would lift some 85 percent of each nation's tariffs on industrial goods.

If the Obama administration wants a truly effective diplomatic approach to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapon quest, it must begin with insisting that North Korea fulfill its existing requirements. To learn six other key negotiating precepts, read the article, "Securing U.S. Objectives in North Korea"  HERE.