"We would really like for China to reign North Korea in some."
Of course we would!
I'd prefer that by a wide margin too....
Only, I don't see much chance of that happening, of China volunteering to carry our water for us.
IMO, our best remaining option goes like this:
1) Go to the Security Council for an injunction declaring N.K. a threat to world peace.
2) If China or Russia vetoes the U.N. action... well, at least we would have smoked them out into the open, and we could start squeezing them economically (file W.T.O. complaints against China's protectionism, their manipulated currency, etc., and PREVENT Russia from joining the W.T.O. if they side with N.K.) Meanwhile (prior to the U.N. vote) *explain* to China & Russia what's at stake for them... and that without a U.N. sanction authorizing an embargo, that we will be forced to take out the reactors. The main thing that China fears is having to deal with MILLIONS of dirt-poor north Koreans fleeing across their border --- and that's exactly what will happen if push comes to shove.
3) The LAST thing we can allow is N.K. to be making 50 to 90 nuclear bombs a year... and selling plutonium to terrorists. The 'War on Terrorism' would have suffered a terrible defeat were that to happen.
By the time they get a couple of hundred bombs, missles, nuclear-tipped artillery, the threat to South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and to the US would be far too grave. |
