Ignoring the Facts

It’s amazing how quickly and easily you can arrive at mutually acceptable agreements as long as you’re willing to ignore the facts and aren’t actually dealing with those involved in the dispute. From David Ignatius’s Washington Post column:

As U.S. officials ponder the path of negotiation that might lead to a permanent treaty, they have signaled several basic American positions: First, the United States would offer assurances to North Korea that its regime wouldn’t be toppled; second, it would guarantee the security of South Korea, a close U.S. ally; third, Washington would pledge not to seek any quick reunification of the Korean Peninsula, reassuring China and Japan, which fear a unified, resurgent Korea; and finally, the United States would express willingness to discuss the future status of its military presence in South Korea, if a peace agreement proved durable.

Tillerson has already publicly offered the first three assurances. The fourth is the most delicate, because all parties recognize that, for now, U.S. troops are an essential stabilizing force, curbing not just Pyongyang but also greater militarization in Seoul and Tokyo.

Does anyone seriously believe that even were all of the assurances in the passage above to be granted it would make the Kim regime feel secure?

I believe there are several things we need to keep in mind. First, the United States military is by far the most powerful in the world. North Korea would still be insecure regardless of what we did.

Second, not only has the United States not attacked North Korea in the last 60 years, it has never done so. The Korean War began with an invasion from the North with the intention of reunifying the northern and southern zones, separated as a consequence of the occupation of the northern part of the Korean peninsula by the Soviet Union following Japanese withdrawal. That was matched by U. S. occupation of the south, under the principles of an agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States reached in August 1945. The Soviets withdrew their troops in 1948 after installing a communist government headed by Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the present ruler of North Korea. The U. S. withdrew in 1949. In 1950 the North invaded the South.

If there is any party interested in “quick reunification of the Korean Peninsula”, it is North Korea. They have never renounced that objective.

So, let’s recap. In exchange for assurances they cannot possibly believe the North Koreans will relinquish a goal they’ve maintained over the period of nearly 70 years. Sounds like a great agreement to me.