I was speechless when I read this. I hardly know where to start.
North Korea has declared that it has nuclear weapons, a capability that U.S. intelligence agencies had suspected for some time. President Bush is known to have a personal distaste for Kim Jong Il, North Korea's quirky ruler, and his abysmal human rights record. Although regime change in the north is not a publicly stated U.S. goal, the president's ever idealistic approach is to ratchet up the pain in an attempt to squeeze the life out of Kim's tyrannical regime. Although this approach may seem plausible, it's counterproductive.
Because the Bush administration has no leverage over North Korea and no effective military alternatives--North Korean nuclear facilities are hidden and deeply buried, and both Seoul and Japan are vulnerable to North Korean retaliatory strikes in the event of a U.S. attack--it is concentrating on tracking and freezing financial transactions related to North Korea's counterfeiting, drug running and covert weapons sales. Yet such sanctions have rarely been successful, as the ineffective financial war against Al Qaeda should indicate. Governments have never been effective in ending these rampant clandestine activities. In fact, the international economic isolation of North Korea drives its government to turn to such illicit ways of raising revenue.
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