How NOT to Manage North Korea. Obama, Clinton and Foreign Policy Establishment Failed and Are Responsible for Current Crisis

Focus on diplomacy without result has led to current situation!

Give peace a chance! That's the message coming from Democrats and the foreign policy establishment worldwide. I might as well listen to the John Lennon tune. Even as a comatose 22 year old Otto Warmbier was returned to the U.S. to die after being beaten in a North Korean prison the peace at any price crowd wanted talk, talk and more talk. That's been the ONLY U.S. response to North Korea for over 25 years. During that time North Korea went from a nuclear free country to one during the Obama Administration armed with 60 miniaturized warheads and well on their way to developing a missile capable of delivering them.

No matter how much talk there has been the situation only gets worse. Diplomacy has failed. I recommend reading the Arms Control Association timeline on North Korea for a brief history of the effort.

The short version is this: In 1991 President George H. W. Bush ordered the removal of all U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea. Shortly after that both North and South Korea agreed to declare the Korean Peninsula a nuclear free zone banning all weapons development. The North Koreans started cheating right away.

During the early 1990's North Korea continued to cheat on nuclear agreements and deny required inspections. Then former President Jimmy Carter got into the act and produced an agreement with North Korea in 1994. Here's President Clinton announcing the agreement in October 1994:

CLINTON: Before I take your questions, I'd like to say just a word about the framework with North Korea that Ambassador Gallucci signed this morning.

This is a good deal for the United States. North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program. South Korea and our other allies will be better protected. The entire world will be safer as we slow the spread of nuclear weapons.

South Korea, with support from Japan and other nations, will bear most of the cost of providing North Korea with fuel to make up for the nuclear energy it is losing, and they will pay for an alternative power system for North Korea that will allow them to produce electricity while making it much harder for them to produce nuclear weapons.

The United States and international inspectors will carefully monitor North Korea to make sure it keeps its commitments. Only as it does so will North Korea fully join the community of nations."

Sounds great hunh? North Korea laughed all the way to the bank and the cheating never stopped!

George W. Bush initially followed a harder line. Bush stopped aid and refused direct talks while describing North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" in the 2002 State of the Union speech. But the do-gooders in Colin Powell's State Department eventually wore Bush down and once again North Korea laughed all the way to the bank.

When Obama, Mr. Red Line in Syria, came into office the North Koreans KNEW they had a good thing. North Korea began testing nuclear weapons while Obama sent high level envoys for diplomatic talks and promised aid if the North Koreans stopped. There was an agreement in 2012 that North Korea would stop nuclear development in return for U.S. aid. The North Koreans laughed all the way to the bank.

Two years later Obama, Mr. Red Line, was in South Korea blustering about U.S. military might. He said The U.S. "will not hesitate to use our military might." North Korea laughed it off! I can't recall any of the melting snowflakes currently hyperventilating about Trump's threat to North Korea fainting in fear at that. No wonder!

Meanwhile, Obama cut spending for missile defense and canceled basing agreements with other nations.

Obama proved so feckless in achieving a deal with North Korea but that didn't stop him from shouting to the rooftops after the deal he cut with Iran. Contrast his words with the failed policy of Bill Clinton above:

OBAMA: Iran will not get its hands on a nuclear bomb. The region, the United States, and the world will be more secure.

In return for Iran signing this worthless deal Obama sent planeloads of U.S. cash. The Iranians, who are working with the North Koreans on nuclear and missile technology laughed all the way to the bank!

It's clear that appeasement and diplomacy has failed. And because of that failure, the threat is now much greater than it ever was. The cost of containing it is also higher. Time to try something new. Let's hope Trump doesn't get snookered like Clinton and Obama!