Finished up by saying we should negotiate to "make sure" they don't do anymore testing, and (I kid you not) that we should follow the Iran model.
I mean, I get it, it's a logical position and one that I've heard many times before (including on this forum). But sometimes I wonder if people are living in some sort of parallel dimension where it's normal to pretend that the South Koreans (and, by default, the Americans) haven't already tried
exactly that.
The South Korean government paid the North Koreans $100 million dollars for the infamous Kim Jong-Il (DPRK) - Kim DJ (ROK) summit in Pyongyang.
What did that meeting accomplish?
Where did that money go?
I'll give you one guess, 57.
It's worth noting that the Obama administration essentially killed off what was left of the Clinton and Bush 43-era "Sunshine Policy" that supported these kind of carrot-stick machinations, which was a necessary, if not painfully obvious diplomatic step. The problem thereafter, as I see it, is that the Obama state department left the Lee Myung-bak and Park Guen-hye administrations almost entirely to their own devices with respect to North Korea (at an integral historical moment: the 'coronation' of Dear Leader 2.0) and relations between the North and the South subsequently deteriorated to one of the lowest points in post-war history.
If there ever was a moment that the military option might have worked, it would have been 2013/2014.
But I digress.
The Iran model. ****ing idiots.