The world is vexed: What in heaven’s name should we do about the maniacal, nuclear-armed regime of Kim Jong-il?
The advice of Kim’s former college professor and former chairman of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly is startling in it’s simplicity and thrift: ‘We should neglect them – let them be.’
For the Daily North Korea, Hwang Jang-yop, who became the president of the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea after his defection in 1997, advises in part:
“Sanctions aren’t useful at all … We should neglect them – let them be – even if they conduct ten additional tests. … The object is merely to coerce the United States into negotiating directly with North Korea – and to raise the prestige of Kim Jong-il. … Kim knows full well that if he were in fact to use nuclear weapons it would mean his demise, so he will never do so. Therefore, the international community need not create a storm by using sanctions that they will subsequently fail to enforce. It should instead use the tactic of neglect. … Although China says publicly, ‘North Korea won’t be moved by our points,’ Beijing is in fact using the situation to boost its own value as a mediator. … If tests that China doesn’t wish to see continue, Beijing might eventually turn its back on the North.”
And just for good measure, this article, headlined America ‘Wholly to Blame’ for Nuclear Threat to World is North Korea’s traditionally high-pitched explanation for why things have gone so wrong on the Korean Peninsula. Of course – none of it is Pyongyang’s fault.
By Yang Jung-a
May 29, 2009
South Korea – Daily North Korea – Original Article (English)
Hwang Jang-yop, president of the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, harbors serious doubts about the effectiveness of international sanctions in coping with North Korea’s second nuclear test. “Sanctions aren’t useful at all,” he said, “We should neglect them – let them be – even if they conduct ten additional tests.”
At a seminar for Seoul students on Mat 28th, Hwang said, “If in its clamor to block North Korean nuclear testing, the international community hardens sanctions, it will only raise the tensions during negotiations. However, if the Kim Jong-il regime conducts many more tests, it will drive the regime to disaster.”
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