The Seattle Times: Live With a Nuclear North Korea and Help It Feel Less Cornered

The United States should not over-react to news that North Korea is a nuclear power. “While Kim [Jong Un] is clearly cruel, he is not crazy,” writes Walter Hatch for the Seattle Times. “What we often forget is that North Korea is also a cornered state, one without any real allies in the world. This is largely a function of juche, the complex policy of ‘self-reliance.’” The regime’s goal is survival and Hatch explains the nation hurries to develop nuclear weapons after watching the demise of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gadhafi. Small states also question why the largest nuclear powers don’t reduce their stockpiles. A counter-argument is that more nuclear weapons are unnecessary and could quickly fall into the wrong hands. Hatch concludes that the international community must try diplomacy, including a nonaggression pact and a path for more openness and communications, to help North Korea feel less cornered and ordinary North Koreans to understand how the rest of the world lives. – YaleGlobal