North Korea

With Trump as President we move from one crisis to the next with barely any breathing room in between. We are alternately entertained or horrified by his buffoonery and utter lack of understanding of how anything outside the realm of Manhattan real estate works. It wasn't all that long ago that a nuclear exchange with North Korea felt, not only possible, but probable. Yet today, despite nothing of substance having changed, we don't hear anything about North Korea, other than its participation in the Olympics.

North Korea has long been a state that ignores the norms of international relations, in many ways their foreign policy can be boiled down to one word: paranoia. North Korean leaders, including Kim Jong-Un, the current leader, make protection of their country from the United States a high priority. Whether this is simply a way to rile up the masses, the way many dictators use foreign threats to cement their power over their own people, or a sincere belief that America will attack, is difficult to ascertain. But the United States' insistence that North Korea not be allowed nuclear weapons plays into this paranoia and confirms widely held suspicious about America. From North Korea's perspective, nuclear weapons are the best, if not only, sure defense against an America that North Koreans are sure wants to annihilate them. Trump's incendiary language only further confirms their fears.

American foreign policy regarding North Korea has long involved preventing its development of nuclear weapons and missiles that could deliver them. North Korea has made it a top priority to make those very things a reality. They don't trust us any more than we trust them. Furthermore, they have seen what has happened to Libya and Iraq when they gave up their weapons of mass destruction.

Over the years our approach to North Korea has been a mix of diplomacy, including aid and sanctions. Sanctions don't work because North Korea's leaders have no problem with letting their people suffer, possibly because it gives them propaganda points against the United States. And there's always some country willing to do an end-run around the sanctions. Diplomacy doesn't work either, it generally gives North Korea breathing room to continue its nuclear research.

So along comes Trump, who jumps up and down and beats his chest, making threats of "fire & fury", trading juvenile insults with Kim Jong-Un. He rails against former presidents whom he calls ineffective and weak. He tweets that we will never accept a nuclear North Korea and makes more threats of military action. But what does he actually do? More toothless sanctions that are undercut by his buddies in Russia. More talk. Insulting nicknames.

Guess what? North Korea has nuclear weapons and the missiles that can get them to the United States mainland! And they reached their final stage of production during Trump's presidency.

Am I glad that we're not engaged in a nuclear war (or any other kind of war) with North Korea? Yes I am. But I find it singularly ironic that all that Trump is doing to prevent something that he insisted was unacceptable was more of what he claimed didn't work, was weak, was ineffective. More talking.