Program Note: For more from Mike Chinoy tune in tonight to hear his discussion with Anderson on the sentences of Euna Lee and Laura Ling in North Korea. Tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
Mike Chinoy
For CNN
There's an old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Although President Barack Obama and other world leaders could be forgiven for feeling that North Korea's Kim Jong-Il is deliberately driving them insane, that adage is worth keeping in mind amid the calls for U.N. Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang over its recent rocket test.
Virtually every angry editorial, opinion column or government statement condemning the launch and urging tough new sanctions has grudgingly acknowledged that - however satisfying such a step would be - it almost certainly won't work. Not only have the Chinese and Russians - key neighbors and trading partners of North Korea - made clear their opposition to sanctions, but history shows that pressure and coercion aimed at punishing the North or changing its behavior have usually had the opposite effect.
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Kim Jong-Il looks in very poor health. I am sure his country needs food.
Close the door. And bolt it tight.
His son in law will be leader soon with a few million hungry mouths for us to fee.
Double bolt that door!
North Korea is threatening my home. They have "tested" their weapons. They have withdrawn from the international community. Even their own allies are viewing their actions with suspicion. Launching their missiles is akin to the neighborhood bully running out in the street and firing a gun in the air. All along they ignore the olive branch and instead seek the power of an atomic weapon. The conduct of violence is escalating.
They have now committed an act of war.
Holding two United States civilians as hostages, claiming journalist attempting to report the truth are a "threat", ignoring international law, identifies themselves as a terrorist nation state. Any other nation would have returned them home. Perhaps a war is what they intend to invite. For they have learned nothing from a bloody history. Every nation on Earth should rally behind the facts. Time has come for action. Either we can act, or as we have witnessed, they will.
There is no greater unifying force than a common enemy. – Sun Tzu
To the average couch potato who tunes into AC 360 after watching 2 hours of "Family Guy" on TBS, it makes no sense why we can't get rid of Kim Jong-il like we did Saddam Hussein. Certainly it would be much easier to find WMD's in North Korea to justify the overthrow and then simply hand the handcuff keys over to Seoul, right?
I think that the North Korean actions are very predictable and the actions of these "journalists" were stupid and have given the NK govt an excellent bargaining chip. The journalist selfishness seem to be forgotten. What would you expect the NK govt to do when their arresting of a SK worker failed to produce headlines? A: Get somebody people cared more about. What journalistic insight were we going to get from a nk "border" shot? If they did not intentionally cross the border they should have well anticipated the consequences of americans even being in a gray area. If they were kidnapped on a foreign soil that could be considered an act of war-but there is no indication that who's side they were on is anything but in question. It is sad that we will have to make some "concessions" to get these people, who were unable to comprehend the big picture, back. Unfortunately, and my empathy goes out to their families, they should not be suprised or outraged at what happened. If you play with fire...
Despite the seriousness of the detonation of another nuclear device by the N Koreans I remain hopeful that some kind of negotiation to resume the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is still possible. We have been here before after all. Back in 2006, the N Koreans detonated their first nuclear device which created waves of fear that a nuclear arms race was about to be ignited across N E Asia. But the parties to the six-party talks refused to resign themselves to eternal hostility and stalemate. They doubled-down on their negotiations in Beijing and produced a hopeful agreement by February 2007, that would work to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. For the rest of the year terms of the agreement were in fact carried out. We all recall Christiane Amanpour's visit to the Yongbyon nuclear reactor where she witnessed and reported on the dismantling of the plutonium reprocessing and the destruction of the cooling towers. As icing on the cake, Christiane Amanpour also accompanied the New York Philharmonic to Pyongyang for their well received concert. CNN should be congratulated for having done this magnificent series of broadcasts scooping the other networks especially Fox News and MSNBC. The ups and downs of the relations with N Korea should prevent the world from succumbing to the despair and fear that many analysts such as John Bolton and Newt Gingrich would like us to adopt in the present circumstances.
There comes a point in time where the US needs to "fish or cut bait". North Korea has been given many chances to stand down and become a part of the rest of the nations on earth. Complete isolation is what I suggest.
Insanity: doing the same thing over,and over again always expecting different results,sounds more like the United States foreign policy! Ever since WWll we have had constant wars with just about every,Nation,Country,and Islands in the entire world,...? Why,you might ask,we'll we call them allies,or strategic partners even though their more vile than North Korea! And you wonder why Russia,China,Pakistan and others laugh behind our backs,because it's this country that is "Insane" with power! Go President Obama!
One main reason sanctions do not work is not all countries adhere to sanction policies. Presently China and Chinese companies are the biggest offenders. Russia is second. Sanctions are only a way to make the offending countries richer so are pretty much useless. Everyone has to admit NKorea would not exist if not for China.
For their to be change in North Korea, it has to come from its own people. No amount of sanctions by the U.N. Security Council will do anything. The people have to rise up and say "enough", even if it cost them their lives.
While I can agree with the notion that repitition will not work with North Korea, I'm baffled at why some haven't figured out that the remaining dictators do what they do to draw the US in then turn it skillfully into a "The US are bullies campaign". Yes a new strategy is indeed needed, but war is not an answer either!
Humanity must be united to eradicate all remaining dictatorships. It isn't possible that today are still committed all these acts of violence against people who can't enjoy any human right. Dictatorships and terrorists need to be banned from Earth for a peace that everyone can get a better world and more free. Unfortunately these people only adhere to the force and not reason.
I give solidarity to the family. That a solution is found soon and ends this suffering.
Born leaders, something our nation has lived without for far too long, exploit the slightest of openings and use them for strategic advancement.
If North Korean nuclear tests did not generate a vociferous denouncement from President Obama, then the twelve year sentence bestowed upon American journalists most certainly should.
This travesty has presented President Obama with a golden opportunity to showcase his global leadership abilities, build bridges and free two Americans.
Anything less will be a missed opportunity and his words and words and words and words and words will prove to be nothing more than hyperbole.
Economic sanctions and severing diplomatic relations just doesn't work anymore especially since the US has very little that the countries couldn't get elsewhere. So sanctions and breaking off diplomatic relations is a global variation of the poor sport child who says if you don't play the game my way I'm going to take my ball and go home – not realizing that probably that is what everyone is hoping he/she would do. No diplomatic relations is a fancy name for ignoring them – doesn't work does it. We need to try something positive and be willing to compromise – like adults.
Yes, act like we are all scared of their war machine. What was that again? Oh yeah right, Germany before World War II. Those who are ignorant of history .... are goomed to repeat it.