A Continuing Debate North Korea Proves Threatening

Author: Michael Crowley

It was with great interest that I read Sara Yun's article in last week's edition of The Middlebury Campus ("America's Focus on Iraq Neglects a North Korean Threat," The Middlebury Campus, April 2, 2003).
However, I found the article to be disappointing, one sided and presenting a wholly inaccurate picture of North Korea.
Yun is right in pointing out that North Korea represents a major foreign policy threat, but I feel that she has underestimated the gravity of that threat.
The current nuclear crisis, Yun claims, stems directly from our policy concerning North Korea.
A much more accurate explanation is Kim Jong Il's unending thirst for power that has driven him to force his nation into becoming a military superpower in Asia.
The goal of his reign of terror has been an attempt to increase the military power of North Korea by increasing the size of its military and by subsidizing their military industries.
North Korea, one of the world's most impoverished nations, with a GDP per capita of under $1,000, spends over 31 percent of its GDP on its military.
This obscene spending on defense occurs while some five to six million North Koreans depend on international food aid so as to avoid starvation.
North Korea has remained economically stagnant over the past 30 years because of its inefficient and military-centric economy.
The rest of the world, most notably the United States-protected South Korea, has grown by leaps and bounds, while North Koreans face starvation, empty shelves and poor healthcare.
North Korea's largest industry, and indeed largest export, is arms and arms technology.
So far, every weapon produced in North Korea has been sold in the international market to other volatile nations.
Remember that incident a few months ago when we discovered a shipment of missiles heading towards Yemen - they were coming from North Korea.
Kim Jong Il is perhaps one of the worst leaders in the world. Who else would let their country fall into such poverty, isolation and despair in order to pursue a large military?
The only "savvy" that he displays is knowing exactly how much force to use against his own people so as to instill enough fear that he is able to remain in power.
Kim Jong Il can be directly blamed for many of North Korea's present problems. He has prioritized the military over his people and he has kept North Korea isolated from the rest of the world.
North Korea has backed itself into its own corner by constantly violating of nonproliferation treaties and by issuing threats to turn the United States "citadel of imperialists into a sea of fire."
This is not the rhetoric of a nation lacking evil intentions.
Yun closes by blasting the Bush policy towards both the Koreas and extolling the virtues of former South Korean leader Kim Dae Jung.
Yes, he did indeed win the Nobel Peace Prize, however it wasn't until January of this year that the world learned, and he acknowledged, that he paid North Korea almost $400 million a few days before the summit to secure their attendance.
It's great to win a Nobel Prize, but it certainly loses something when everyone learns that you had to buy it.
Finally, to satisfy Yun's demands, the United States is indeed pursuing a multilateral diplomatic solution to the Korean problem, working especially hard to put together a coalition of Asian nations to denounce the development of nuclear weapons by North Korea, despite their continual refusals to negotiate with us or other Asian nations.

Michael Crowley is a sophomore international politics and economics major from Basking Ridge, New Jersey.