North Korea’s nuclear admission shows the regime must be confronted, not appeased

North Korea admits it’s been lying to the world and secretly developing nuclear weapons. Now the Bush administration is under pressure to call that admission a sign of the regime’s openness, and to continue the Clinton-era appeasement policy that allowed the nuclear program to progress.

"Incredibly, some inside the Bush administration — and many outside it — are acting as though this confirmation of bad faith offers a basis for further negotiations with and concessions to North Korea," Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney writes in National Review Online. "According to this logic, it is progress that Kim Jong-Il is coming clean about his nuclear weapons, like he did recently about his country’s abduction and enslaving of Japanese citizens to train spies for use against their country.

"Now, President Bush is understandably reluctant either to divert attention from the impending action aimed at eliminating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein or to initiate steps that would precipitate hostilities on two fronts simultaneously. Still, he risks completely undermining the credibility of his effort to address effectively the Axis of Evil — and the role they play in the war on terror — if he embraces suggestions from allies in the region and beyond that the latest revelations justify a redoubling of Carteresque appeasement of North Korea."

The administration must:

1. Agree that North Korea’s covert nuclear-weapons program nullifies the Clinton-designed "Agreed Framework" to buy off Pyongyang with billions in aid and nuclear technology.

2. Return to a policy of containment of North Korea, for the time being, discouraging Japan and South Korea from undermining that policy with their own ill-advised overtures.

3. Hold Russia and China accountable for their proliferation of nuclear weapons and missile technology to North Korea.

4. Be ready to deal with North Korea on a more compressed timetable than the administration would like. Like Saddam Hussein, the threat from the Stalinist regime in North Korea will only grow over time.

ARCHIVE: The Center warned in 1994 that the Clinton deal to bribe North Korea from building nuclear weapons "invites deadly, aggressive behavior." Click here for our October 19, 1994 Decision Brief.