MAD part deux, Asian Style..

So, North Korea has finally admitted that they are in fact, in possession of nuclear devices and the ballistic delivery systems capable of deploying them as far away as the west coast of the United States. Not something entirely new to most people with a TV set and an IQ over 80, but the fact that they have publicly admitted their existance means two things.

1. They have nothing left to bargin with and so needed to play one of their last cards on the table
2. The tyrannical regime of the DPRK is becoming rather bored (imploding) and like any dying and cornered animal, is lashing out for what may be its final breath.

The first reason is the most likely and the most productive for the DPRK , yielding the best results. They hope to bring the US back to the table as they did in 1992 and obtain more security guraentees, food aid, money, fuel oil and whatever else their hearts desire. In exchange, they will no doubt promise to dismantle their weapons program and make nice with their brethern to the south. In reality we undoubtly be caught once again in the insanity that is the Korean Flashpoint and find ourselves 4 years from now asking why we keep repeating the same thing and expecting different results, i.e. the definition of insanity.

What to do you ask?
MAD. Mutually Assured Destruction. A unpopular strategic nuclear policy put into full practice by Robert McNamara in the 60s, MAD is credited with helping to prevent a nuclear and total great power war by simply allowing both sides to realize that war with nukes is impossible to win (and so they never launch). Largely a Cold-War strategy, I believe with some tinkering that this concept can be employed in both Central Asia and the Asian-Pacific Rim to the benefit of our allies in the region and of course the United States proper.

Have you lost your mind?
Thats beside the point. In response to North Korea's obvious intentions to continually harass us and its neighbors with the threat of ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads, let us instead turn the tables on them and call their bluff. Oh and dont forget China. China stands to lose almost more than anyone if the Korean pennisula turns into a fighting match and yet still stands on the side-lines in a vain effort to use "strong" language when dealing with their ideological counterparts. If we were to, oh I dont know, either allow or give (deploy) nuclear weapons in Japan and/or South Korea and then give some command and control to those respective goverments, we may just see a quick change of heart when it comes to threatenning your neighbors. By allowing an Asian MAD strategy to emerge between S. Korea/Japan vs. N Korea, several things will immediately happen. The most promininently of which will be the entire Chinese Communist Party taking a collective gasp and start a mad(no pun intended) dash to either A) Reposition their relatively small nuclear forces to account for a "threat" in the East or B) March into Pyongyang and quickly, willingly and without question remove the Kim Jong Il dynasty in the name of regional stability and security (this would be my guess and my hopes). By forcing this situation into the very laps of the Chinese, we will ensure that they take responsibility for their own neighborhood or suffer the conseqences of their inaction. I am willing to bet that the situation in North Korea would be very quickly resolved thanks to our sino-counterparts.

Holes I am found..
Unlike most people, I find holes in my own ideas and try to plug them. The first and largest hole in this idea is the simple fact that the Japanese people have such an understandable aversion to nuclear weapons due to being the only population to have experienced their devestation. In order for this plan to work, the Japanese goverment would have to make it publicly known that they have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. Given the historical public outcry against military expansion of any kind, this is a large stumbling block. Oh and I almost forgot... during one time or another, the Japanese empire has invaded, pilaged and overrun almost all of the nations on the pacific rim and so giving them nuclear capabilities would surely upset many of them.

Asian's MAD?
So is the short term answer to the North Korean situation a MAD policy for the Asian/Pacific comunity? I think it is one of many viable alternatives to this continued prolonged negotiations that we seem to be perpetually stuck in. Overall direct military options are not ideal and we obviously are having trouble with convincing the N Koreans that they should rejoin the human race and the global community, so forcing China to take action through the threat of an Asian Nuke race may be the answer. In this respect, China will be able to coherantly maintain "face" while other Asian nations will be able to exercise their own regional rights and responsibilites. While I do believe that the security and stability situation in that region of the world is vitally important to the interests of teh United States, it is in fact their neighborhood and they are ultimately responsible for policing their block.

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