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North Korean crisis

Direct talks, pressure through China and more severe sanctions are among the ways to deal with the nuclear renegade Kim Jong Il.

North Korea has finally crossed a line the world cannot ignore. By conducting an underground nuclear weapons test, the isolated nation and its erratic leader, Kim Jong Il, poked a finger in the world's eye and dared a response. North Korea is one of the poorest nations on Earth. It can't feed its people or keep the lights on without the charity of its neighbors. Yet it has managed to become a scary new member of the nuclear club that so far has had no dropouts.

There aren't many good options for how to proceed. The best approach would be if China stopped dragging its feet and used its considerable leverage to persuade Kim to dismantle his nuclear program. For years China has been propping up Kim's regime with generous aid against the day North Korea could dissolve into chaos and its 23-million people start streaming across the border into China.

China joined other members of the U.N. Nations Security Council on Monday in unanimously condemning Pyongyang's nuclear test. But talk is cheap. The United States and key allies, including Britain and France, said they will ask the Security Council to impose harsh economic and diplomatic sanctions on North Korea. It's not clear, however, whether China, which has veto power on the Security Council, will go along with the proposal.

A nuclear North Korea will have reverberations through the entire region. Just as Pakistan tested a bomb soon after its enemy India did, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan may soon feel the need to arm themselves against the unstable Kim. This kind of proliferation would devastate efforts to contain the nuclear threat and create new dangers in the Pacific region.

Since October 2002, five nations, including the United States, have worked to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions. That effort that has obviously failed. Kim has insisted on bilateral talks with the United States, but he has always been put off by the Bush administration.

It is time for direct talks. Former Secretary of State James Baker, who is close to the first President Bush, said Sunday he believes in "talking to your enemies." We should be communicating clearly to the North Koreans the probable consequences of maintaining an arsenal of nuclear weapons and the benefits of giving them up. If direct talks fail, then the international community must be prepared to show that it means business in other ways.

North Korea is already subject to U.N. sanctions. Under Security Council Resolution 1695, no state may send missile-related items to North Korea. But harsher and broader sanctions should be established if Kim continues to defy the international community. If the nations of the world can't come together to respond to a renegade nuclear power, the United Nations will prove itself to be little more than a debating society.

Be sure that Iran, which has its own nuclear ambitions, will be watching to see how the world deals with a defiant nuclear upstart like North Korea.

[Last modified October 10, 2006, 01:53:52]