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Axis of Evil, Asian Division

Liberation of North Korea should be the goal.

Mar 25, 2002, Vol. 7, No. 27 • By JIM DORAN
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PRESIDENT BUSH'S inclusion of North Korea in the "axis of evil" was accurate and necessary. It was also liberating. It freed us from the confines of a debate about North Korea that has unfolded along traditional hawk versus dove lines.

The doves, led by South Korean president Kim Dae Jung and former U.S. president Bill Clinton, stressed the need for dialogue, conciliation, and the pursuit of signed agreements with the North. This approach has featured the 1994 Agreed Framework, a North-South summit in June 2000, renewed diplomatic relations between Pyongyang and several Western countries (though not the United States), and the lifting of longstanding U.S. sanctions on North Korea.

If the measure of success is the enhancement of U.S. and South Korean security, then the dovish approach has manifestly failed. Through all the talk and signing ceremonies of the past decade, North Korea has continued to develop the Taepo Dong-2 missile, which will be able to reach the United States, according to the CIA. It also continues to export missile components and technology to Iran, Libya, and Syria. No effort has been made to diminish its stock of chemical and biological weapons, both of which, the CIA recently informed Congress, Pyongyang has the capability to deliver by missile. As for nuclear power, despite the freeze on construction of the Yongbyon nuclear reactors, the fact is that without full inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to which North Korea has agreed but which have yet to take place, we simply do not know the full extent of Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities.

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