From what I see, North Korea is run by a small ruling class made up of military and family members that have no interest in making peace. They live extravagant lives due to what is basically a crime racket that is run at the expense of the common North Korean.

Im sure duplicating this situation in the US is the wet dream of the Koch Brothers and their ilk. A militarist state, with a poor peasant base, and a small group of elite, mega rich families that inherit their power from the previous generation, are the sugar plums that dance in THEIR heads, when they crawl under their rocks at night.

It will be interesting to see if the USAns will put up with it. I used to think no way, but it seems to have worked quite well in North Korea for generations now. Even with people dying by the millions from starvation, the rulers stay in power.

So who knows, what will happen here when TPTB figure they have things in place for the final crack down here, but whatever does happen, I think we are going to find out what, real soon.

I propose a massive bombing campaign of North Korea.

But instead of explosives I propose we bomb them with food, clothes, and other products that would improve the living of the people. Of course these would need to be properly packaged and have parachutes to insure they were in good condition as they fill up the country side.

Maybe even set up cell phone towers and broadcasting stations on the borders to beam into the nation so we could also gift them with cell phones, computers, televisions and radios. We should not use this to do propaganda. We should only give them entertainment that would not threaten the regime.

Another good thing to drop into the nation would be battery powered lights and heaters.

I suspect if we did this, spending the amount of money we would have to spend to go to war, that in a few years North Korea, while still staying a dictatorship, would cease being a rogue state and a threat.

We also might want to secretly negotiate with the leadership that they would be more prosperous if they follow China's model and open up to the world.

But we'll never do anything like this.

"North Korea will have to end its nuclear program." Really? Says who? Mr. Margolis, a member of the superior species "homo americanus"? Because, of course, only amerikkans are wise enough to continue to develop nuclear weapons, to drop them on some inferior yellow and brown subspecies and to threaten other nations with mass murder and mayhem if they don't comply with homo americanus' barking orders. The horror that has befallen North Korean people has been masterminded by the same life forms that would not hesitate to impose the same horror on American people. As far as I am concerned, I am terrified that Kim Jong-un can keep his fat finger on a nuclear button--but I am equally terrified if another such button is being touched by the likes of Bush or Obama. Margolis is full of ethnocentric shit.

Eric Margolis must be CIA, Mossad, paid for by the MIC, working for NATO and the Pentagon, etc. etc. etc. spreading this imperialist propaganda about such a democracy. Thank Ford we here at CD are pretty smart and know better and can see thru all the paid for MIC propaganda and know (because some guy wrote a book about it that only we read) that North Korea is a beacon of justice, democracy and human rights upon the other nations. Anything to the contrary is nothing but NATO propaganda to instate an invasion of a free and sovereign nation. If that weren't enough, we just saw the people of North Korea weeping and sobbing for their beloved leader in front of the state cameras. Usually, we disregard anything the corporate media has to tell us but not this one. Oh, no, Sirie Bob, not this one. We believe this one...well, because it's true. Sheesh, Margolis. We're not stupid here, you know?

While teaching English in Czechoslovakia just after the fall of the Communist regime, I found that the people believed nothing the Communists had told them about the United States.

In America the people believe everything that the government tells them about North Korea.

Dwell on that.

This is a good article by Eric Margolis, and I'm glad that I don't have anything in it to disagree on (I usually find one or other points in any Margolis column unacceptable and biased) - except his insistence that "North Korea will have to end its nuclear program" in the absence of worldwide nuclear disarmament. But I suppose if other countries are going to give some form of financial, food and technological assistance, they may have some "right" to demand that this aid be spent in a way that does not threaten them.

Margolis also makes this interesting point: "South Korea’s Christian Evangelical hard right won’t end its hostility to Communism". Although I never thought of it before, now that I think about it, it makes sense. It is unfortunate that the hard-working South Koreans have got themselves trapped in this belief system that definitely seems to cloud individual judgement on some important matters of world affairs (just based on my personal experience and encounters). While many ordinary Koreans resent American presence and dominance, they do not seem to have the courage to be totally rid of this "relationship". South Korea also supplies the world's second largest number of Christian missionaries. So any attempts at reconciliation and an eventual reunification with the North would be an interesting challenge - but something that can definitely be handled if there are statesmen on both sides. But the empire would have to get out of the Korean peninsula first.

Duplicate for some reason

I don't believe that the USA and S Korea want Peace and good relations with N Korea.

S Korea did not send an official diplomat or delegation to the State funeral which is a diplomatic slap in the face to N Korea.

It seems if peace was the true goal they wouldn't be antagonizing the North - or starting relations with the new leader by insulting his dead father.

"You’ve got to hand it to the North Koreans, they certainly know how to throw a funeral."

I suppose they've got to be good at something.......If only they knew how to feed themselves.

pampered well fed fat little fcuker isn't he !

good to see the dynasty alive and thriving in its third generation of royalness in NK.

This is a good article as far as it goes. Where it does not go, is into the unfinished history of the 1994 framework agreement that the US signed with the DPRK. That history is unfinished because as it has been written to date, it only contains the Bush II regime's propaganda version.

The 1994 framework agreement consists of 4 pages of very easy reading for those who are interested:
http://www.kedo.org/pdfs/AgreedFramework.pdf

The US motivation for the agreement was largely based upon fears that DPRK's graphite moderated nuclear reactors were a significant source of plutonium in its spent fuel, which could be fairly easily reprocessed into a weapons grade fuel.

The DPRK motivation appears to have been primarily their desire for a non-aggression treaty with the US.

The gist of the treaty, was that the DPRK would shut down, place under IAEA inspection, and eventually dismantle its Graphite Moderated Nuclear reactors, reprocessing facilities, and spent fuel and byproducts. They would honour their commitments under the NNPT. In return for these actions, the US would facilitate design, financing, and construction of two Light Water Moderated Reactors, which do not result in the large quantities of Plutonium output. The US would assure the provision of Heavy oil as an alternative fuel for heating and power generation until the light water reactors came online.

In addition the US would assure the DPRK of non-aggression, and the two countries would work toward normalization of relations. The dismantlement of the Graphite Moderated plants and removal of spent fuel and Plutonium were to be begun after the first of the Light Water reactors came online.

While DPRK met all of its commitments under the agreement through the turn of the century, the US and its partners made very little progress indeed on the provision of the Light water reactors, which were supposed to have been coming online by 2003. While the Clinton government made some progress towards normalization, the Bush government refused to rule out aggression, either conventional or nuclear, accused DPRK of a clandestine uranium enrichment program, and appended North Korea to the "Axis of Evil" as listed in Bush's State of the Union Address. In October 2002, Bush's envoy to the DPRK claimed that North Korean officials had admitted to uranium enrichment. North Korea denied this, but the excuse was used to cut off heavy oil shipments in the midst of a cold Korean winter and stop progress towards the Light water reactors. US propaganda at the time, suggested that the heavy oil had been a grant in aid that the US was not obliged to continue. It had not been a grant in aid, but a treaty obligation in return for DPRK voluntary compliance with US requests.

DPRK responded by restarting their Graphite reactors, and expelling inspectors.

The North Korean testing of nuclear weapons which followed has been based upon plutonium as a weapons grade fuel. It is noteworthy that the reprocessing of spent fuel to isolate weapons grade plutonium is many times simpler and less costly than the enrichment of uranium. It is this that makes the accusation of uranium enrichment by a country that had voluntarily placed its plutonium facilities under seal and inspection seem ridiculous on the face of it.