I gave a talk to some very bright high schoolers a few weeks ago, about how they should think about North Korea when they read about it in the news. Here is the gist of what I tried to get across: (thread)
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So the “gist” is that the free world should do nothing about North Korea =/
It should do plenty of things — diplomacy, deterrence, beefing up our allies, sanctions, etc., all are things that are "on the table." Just not "start a war with them." But if the opposite of "start a war" to you is "do nothing," then yes, "do nothing" is preferable.
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The western world has tried that for over 50 years. Meanwhile the people of North Korea are subjugated to concentration camps and starvation. How much worse does it need to get before action? Does Pyongyang need to follow though with its threats of nuclear attack?
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How long? Like he said, Mao’s China and the USSR didn’t last forever. Why would NK be different? Military aggression will lead to “might as will kill them if I’m going down anyway” like nuclear strike somewhere.
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I agree. North Korea most likely is restrained by the (Nash) equilibrium inherent in MAD. Hence it is highly improbable that nukes would ever be deployed. The question becomes a mater of risk vs moral obligation.
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Moral obligation? Sure, but who’s going to take action? US government? Yeah, we can really trust those guys!
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The UN charter was signed 1945. The objective was to mitigate regimes like Nazi Germany. North Korea is exactly what the UN was drafted to deal with. Today you would think that the 193 member states would “do something” more then drink Perrier.
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The state, by its nature, is based on violence. The only thing it is capable of doing is destruction. The best way to help is release all sanction and encourage trade. Information will leak in too, like how tyrannical the regime is and how prosperous outside is.
End of conversation
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North Korea is wrong and evil. Crazy, yes. Has enemies of their own making. We, under bill Clinton paid billions. Should we have done "nothing"? It's past time to end this. If the north Leader is not "crazy", he will safely step down. He is rich. Someone will take him in
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But won't sanctions, deterrence, beefing up our allies all feed and continue the cycle? NK views those as threats.
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