Why Obama Needs to Keep On Eye on North Korea

The views stated in this entry are solely of the author's and does not reflect the views of HanVoice as an organization.

Only a few more days till the Obama coronation, and the pundits everywhere are scrambling to predict what type of policies the new President of the United States (or POTUS, as acronymphiles like myself fondly refer to) will take on. His nominations for the various cabinet posts are some sort of indication - for instance, trying to put the well-liked Geihner (misfiled taxes aside) at Treasury is a clear sign that Obama doesn't want to tangle with Republicans when it comes to attempting to fix the ailing economy.

As an avid North Korea watcher of some sorts, I've been eager to find out what Obama is going to do regarding that oh-so-troublesome country. How important is North Korea going to be on the Obama administration's agenda? If North Korea does make it into the inner sanctum, will Obama push for a simple denuclearization of the DPRK, or will such petty things as human rights be introduced into the dialogue? As all of us are at least somewhat interested with human rights in North Korea, and since Obama did promise "change we can believe in", one might think the new administration is going to at least do something different from the Bush administration... well, at least for the mere sake of it.

According to the Chosun Ilbo, looks like it ain't gonna happen: North Korea is going to be a "low priority" to Obama.

Not a huge surprise. The new president barely mentioned North Korea during the campaign and even has a personal history of forgetting promises that he made to those who languished in North Korean prisons. Silly me, believing in what Senator and now about to be President Obama said in the past. The memories of political types are of course always suspect - one has to wonder how the whole "axis of evil" thing figured into Dubya's strategy of negotiating with the NorKs sans any mention of human rights. But I digress.

But in the interest of not seeing North Korea blow up (perhaps even literally), here's some unsolicited advice to the soon-to-be president.

Don't let North Korea think you're ignoring them.

You see, the DPRK is probably like the jealous, spoiled and vindictive girl in high school. Secretly, she'd throttle her own twin sister if you went to the prom with her (something she has actually tried to do) but occasionally kicks you in the crotch in the halls and runs away. The North Koreans don't want you to be too close to this twin sister, South Korea, who you're friends with but have a bit of a love-hate relationship that goes both ways. When North Korea thinks you're not paying attention to her, she does terrible things. For instance, in 1998, she test-fired an ICBM that would have landed somewhere by Sarah Palin's house in Alaska if it had worked properly. Then in 2006, she test-fired the same type of missile (failing again), and just in case the United States still wasn't paying attention (and with the woes in Iraq, they probably weren't), the fellows in Pyongyang decided that they needed to test a nuclear device (which again, probably failed).

Now I know what you're thinking: when has North Korea successfully tested anything that could be threatening to the United States? And so far, they haven't. But that's not the point. You can bet a thousand fistbumps that they're working on it. More importantly, you don't need this kind of distraction, just like Dubya did not need North Korea claiming itself the new nuclear power and the Democrats seething in the somewhat unfair assertion that he'd let North Korea have the bomb. Would you want seething Republicans breathing down your neck if North Korea went through with another test (and this time a successful one?)

I know you've got a lot on your plate, and fixing the economy is your first priority, and it ain't going to be easy. But simply appointing a special envoy for this and running it directly out of the White House would be a great way to deflect future grief. Dubya understood that this had to happen only after the nuke test - I'd like to think that you've learned from Dubya's mistakes. And while you're at it, perhaps injecting human rights back into the dialogue would be a really good step that wouldn't be the "business as usual" you were so criticizing during the campaign and real "change we can believe in" - unless only Americans deserve this change, and not North Korean concentration camp prisoners or refugees.

Dubya ignored human rights because he wanted results as soon as possible, ie. before his term ran out. You have at least four years to tango with the North Koreans. So let's not waste this opportunity! Take North Korea to the prom!

And please don't get me wrong - it's going to be a long and hard road to wrestle nuclear weapons out of North Korea's hands (if they even want to) and try to bring some sort of human rights normalcy to the whole situation. But just think of what you've been telling us for the past two years, over and over again.

Mr. Obama: yes, you can!