It’s Nice to Dream

A view of what China’s role should be in the situation with respect to North Korea that more clearly resembles my own is expressed by Daniel Gerstein at The RAND Blog, in this case going beyond North Korea’s nuclear weapons program to its chemical weapons program. The Chinese should be taking point on the effort to cause North Korea to stand down with an unambiguous message:

There can be no ambiguity about the consequences of the use of chemical weapons. China would need to make clear that the result would be a severing of diplomatic ties between the two nations, closing of the China-North Korea border, an embargo for all trade that is occurring to include humanitarian support, and active global condemnation led by China as a result of chemical weapons use.

Should North Korea fail to be dissuaded from launching a chemical attack, any response should be coordinated with allies in the region and not result from a unilateral decision by the United States as was done in response to Syria. Such a response would do well to include the full authority of the United Nations and be executed by an international coalition.

Sadly, I think it’s about ten years too late for such a stance. It’s nice to dream.

But let’s be clear about it. The reason we’re drawing ever closer to war with North Korea and possibly with China is that we’ve been unable or unwilling to balance our interests with China. China has economic, political, military, and strategic interests in North Korea. We’ve been acting as though we only have economic interests to discuss with China and we’ll sacrifice anything in a mad grab for a dollar bill.