I'm no expert in foreign relations, but I think sometimes it takes an outsider to call attention to a salient point. The press has been reporting that in response to another nuclear test, the U.S. is considering putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. This is seen as a simple tit for tat because, after all, Bush took them off this list in October 2008 after they promised to stop working on nuclear weapons. I think it will be important for Obama's supporters to make clear that the move by Bush was bad policy from the beginning. If a dictator who sponsors terrorism is a terrorist, then Bush sent the message that he is willing to deal with a terrorist, offer him immunity from even being called a terrorist, in exchange for an end to some of his actions. It can't have escaped Kim Jong Il's notice that if he had never begun a nuclear program, he would have had nothing to offer to get his country off the list.
North Korea's terrorist actions began shortly after Kim came to power, with a bombing in Rangoon in 1983 that killed South Korean Cabinet level officials and nearly assassinated their president. As explained in a report by Larry Niksch from February of this year, the bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987 killing 115 passengers first earned them a listing, followed by the kidnapping of Japanese citizens, some of which are still held (unless you believe the story about 8 of 13 dying and all records of them being washed away in a flood), and deals in which arms were sent and possibly training given to the Tamil Tigers and Hezbollah as recently as 2007. Now just because a country is involved in terrorism doesn't mean it should be listed forever, but we should bear in mind that one Supreme Leader was in control from 1980 to the present day, and he has never taken any action to investigate or punish anyone involved in these actions, including of course himself.
Obama may have been in a difficult position before, because the Bush administration went through much trouble to make this deal and he didn't want to abruptly reverse course. But now that North Korea has done as it always does, it is time not merely to list it as a sponsor of terrorism again - but to make it clear that our policy of condemning terrorism is no longer for sale.
Comments are closed for this post.
