Stop romancing North Korea
November 9, 2014 -- Updated 0321 GMT (1121
HKT)
Editor's note: Christian Whiton
is a former deputy special envoy for human rights in North Korea for the George
W. Bush administration. He is president of the Hamilton Foundation, a principal
with DC Advisory, a public policy consultancy, and the author of "Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War." The views expressed
are his own.
(CNN) -- Securing the release of American prisoners Kenneth
Bae and Matthew Miller from North Korea was not cost-free. It may also be an
omen of the return of recurring efforts by U.S. administrations of both parties
to negotiate deals with Pyongyang that inevitably fail.
The United States supposedly does
not have diplomatic relations with North Korea. After all, the arms
proliferating, dollar counterfeiting, nuclear-armed dictatorship, which
torpedoed a South Korean ship in 2010, hasn't accounted for all of the foreign
nationals it kidnapped abroad to train its spies, and occasionally threatens
America and its allies with annihilation.
Christian Whiton
But that hasn't stopped a string
of senior U.S. diplomats from visiting Pyongyang over the past three
administrations. The most recent denizen was U.S. Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper, who
on Saturday brought home the two Americans imprisoned by the regime for
alleged speech and faith-related activities that wouldn't get a second look in
the civilized world.
While Clapper's trip may have
been "last-minute," as the Obama administration described it, the efforts to
arrange it probably went on for months -- and are emblematic of an unfortunate
approach to North Korea and its Chinese allies that spans Republican and
Democratic administrations -- especially in their final years.
Washington and Pyongyang both
have agendas beyond what is visible today.
Obama: Wonderful day for
detainees 
2009 detainee describes time
in N. Korea 
U.S. detainees faced 'bizarre'
charges
Is North Korea being magnanimous
in releasing Bae and Miller before their trumped-up prison sentences ran out, or
might it want something in return? In fact, it has already acquired something:
the appearance of legitimacy.
The autocrats who maintain North
Korea's totalitarian rule through fear -- and the young leader, Kim Jong Un, who
even had his uncle executed -- relish any opportunity to show how they can make
representatives of vastly more powerful nations come to Pyongyang and kiss their
proverbial ring.
Previous visitors in this vein
have included then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former President Jimmy
Carter, former Vice President Al Gore, and various representatives of
then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The North Korean government knows
more about the U.S. political cycle than many American political scientists. It
saw that the final two years of the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
administrations were fruitful for dealing with presidents and secretaries of
state desperately trying to burnish their legacies.
Under President Clinton, aid to
North Korea from Washington and Seoul spiked beginning in 1999, and included
efforts to build nuclear power plants for the North Koreans. Under President
Bush, Rice announced in 2007 a breakthrough whereby Pyongyang would give up its
nuclear program in exchange for aid. As some
predicted, North Korea took the aid but kept the nuclear program. It now
likely hopes for a repeat of sorts.
North Korea no longer depends on
foreign handouts for its survival. By some accounts, its economy is better off than ever, thanks
to expanded trade with China -- much of which is supposedly banned by U.N.
resolutions. But Pyongyang would still welcome further sanctions relief and
loves to be courted diplomatically, which makes it look strong.
Courtship of North Korea also
invariably involves obeisance to the notion that China will pressure its
neighbor into behaving -- and perhaps even surrendering its nuclear weapons
program. This is a diplomatic truism that just isn't true: Beijing has always
normalized trade with North Korea rapidly after any disruptions in the wake of
North Korean nuclear tests or other belligerent acts.
But it seems only Pyongyang and
Beijing are in on this joke played on American and allied diplomats -- and
China's unelected government itself cherishes the legitimacy it gets from being
seen as the regional diplomatic linchpin. That is why Beijing has also been promoting multilateral talks with North Korea.
The way out of this is to stop
believing that romancing Pyongyang will advance U.S. interests. North Korea has
violated numerous arms agreements with the United States or other parties.
Pyongyang will not be sweet-talked out of its nuclear arsenal or other
provocations.
Washington can end the cycle of
North Korea taking Americans hostage by declaring U.S. passports invalid for
travel to North Korea. Furthermore, the United States and its allies should
pivot to a program of putting nonviolent pressure on the North Korean
regime.
Washington should tell the truth
about China's support of Pyongyang, increase aid to defectors who try to pierce
the curtain of censorship that keeps North Koreans in the dark and punish any
company or bank that does business with the regime.
Putting the United States at the
same table as lawless thugs isn't just morally repugnant -- it's ineffective.
The free world should devote more effort to a better form of diplomacy that
makes life difficult for its opponents.
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