Understanding North Korea - Part Two

     In my earlier blog ("Understanding North Korea" September 7) I pointed out the historical influences on North Korean thinking, and how it was important to understand this aspect of North Korean mentality when dealing with them.  Since that blog, some two weeks ago, North Korea has conducted more missile tests and even tested a nuclear bomb that our "experts" are conceding is of hydrogen bomb size!  To top it all off, they just fired a second mid range missile over Hokkaido, Japan, causing mild panic within Japanese government.  Firing a missile over Japanese territory is equivalent to invading not just Japanese air space, but actually committing a hostile act.  What do you think will happen if Russia or some other country fires a couple of missiles over the U.S.?  Keep in mind that when Soviet Union shot down a clearly identifiable Korean Air Lines plane with innocent civilians aboard, killing everyone, they justified it by saying that the KAL aircraft had violated Soviet air space.  Earlier, when North Korea captured the U.S. spy ship USS Pueblo and held the crew hostage, it was because we had violated their boundary and entered their "space", according to them.  North Korea does not recognize the two mile international boundary line, they stretch their boundary beyond that range!  We, by the way, paid ransom to have our ship and crew released.  Of course the American public was not told about the fact that we "paid off" the North Koreans!
     So, now with all that is going on, we are still using the same approach as before!  Our government is asking UN Security Council to act....kind of a joke.  We are asking China and Russia (both permanent members of UN Security Council) to step up and do "something."  We are also trying to level even heavier economic sanctions on North Korea than it is already facing.  All of this sounds well and good, but it will not work!  I think our government knows it, yet continues to pursue this route.  Are we trying to drive North Korea into an act that would bring about war?  There appears to be no attempt to open any sort of a direct dialogue with North Korea.  Instead, we are asking China and Russia to do the heavy lifting.  This is precisely what North Korea doesn't want.  They want to be treated as an independent entity, to be dealt directly, not through some foreign power as China or Russia, making them out to be a vassal state!  That is how North Korea is interpreting our actions and words.  At the same time, neither China or Russia will do much to ease the situation.  North Korea is a perfect "buffer," a proxy for them.  North Korea has been surviving all these years through Chinese economic support, i.e., trading between the two countries which is estimated at around 85% of North Korea's economic trade.  New sanctions, no matter how strict, will not impact North Korea like we think it will.  Trading with China will continue as before.  China and Korea have been trading partners for centuries, going back several thousand years!  New economic sanctions will change nothing.  By the way, even for South Korea, our ally, the biggest trading partner is China, not us!
     We appear to be bound and determined to somehow resolve the North Korean issue with tough talk and tough sanctions.  As the saying goes, talk is cheap, and as far as sanctions are concerned, they won't work.  The common people in North Korea will suffer more, but the North Korean establishment will continue as before since their trade with China will go unabated, sanctions or no sanctions!  Even now, much of the trading between China and North Korea is illegal, i.e., contraband goods going from one country to another.  We have got to open a dialogue with North Korea directly if we want to resolve this on going issue that could easily lead to a disaster.  We can't rely on China or Russia.  Neither one of those countries really want to do anything to help us!  Unless we are prepared to take the military option and go to war, we have to change our approach.