Improving Obama’s Grade on North Korea
I admit, when things with North Korea under the new Obama administration first started heating up, I was cynical and doubtful due to what I perceived as Washington’s lack of organization on the issue. When the Asia Society gave Obama a “C” on his first 100 days in office with the spotlight on the DPRK, I felt that was being a bit generous.
But I’m now up to entertaining the possibility that I might be growing more cautiously optimistic about his approach. While I believe North Korea wasn’t really a priority on Obama’s list until North Korea made itself a priority, I am starting to like what I see coming from D.C.
So maybe that “C” is now well justified. I would even go as far as saying that once North Korea is back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a “B” would be well-deserved.
But just for the sake of conversation, what would it take for the administration to get an “A” when dealing with North Korea? In my opinion, a “B” represents all the hard work, an “A” would just be going the extra mile and putting the icing on the cake.
I’ve been collecting suggestions:
How about calling their bluff? (We all know that North Korea isn’t serious when it threatens to interpret various actions we take against them as “acts of war” but it continues to use such rhetoric anyway.)
Should we randomly jam all electronic emissions in North Korea? Harass them at sea by dumping stuff in the water right in front of them, maybe throw out a few fishing nets to get tangled in their propellers…jam their radios, use anti-riot sound directional speakers on them to make it impossible to sleep?
Or how about aiding South Korea NGO efforts? We could help darken the skies with more leaflet balloons! (That really got the DPRK going earlier.)
Should we vamp up VOA transmissions? Help South Korea flood the border with banned media to expose North Koreans to the outside world?
What about putting North Korea’s military on constant alert, forcing them to burn valuable fuel and electrical power? (You could argue that we already have done that but maybe we should keep it up.)
North Korea is already super paranoid to begin with so they’d probably fall for such moves.
Any “teachers” out there care to share their suggestions for an “A” mark? Or are there people out there who think more needs to be done to solidify a “B” grade?