Kim Jong Il's bombshell

Leaders
North Korea's nuclear spectacular


May 28th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Isolated it may be, but North Korea’s antics do damage far beyond its own reach

Reuters/AlamyHE HAS been coaxed, cajoled, censured and sanctioned. Yet whenever it suits North Korea’s boss, Kim Jong Il, he spews out new threats. For years he has managed to extort cash, oil and other goodies for then quietening down, only to behave even more threateningly next time. Can nothing be done to make this serial rule-breaker blink?

With his second nuclear test and multiple missile launchings (see article), North Korea’s Dear Leader has ignored the hand that President Barack Obama has said he is ready to extend to America’s erstwhile enemies. He has also delivered a nuclear-powered slap in the face to China, his semi-backer and the chief proponent for the past six years of a strategy of come-what-may patience, negotiation and perks in an effort to humour Mr Kim out of the bomb business. But patience is not always a virtue in dealing with a regime as practised at blackmail as Mr Kim’s. For unless he now pays a seriously high price for his defiance, the message heard by others, particularly Iran, still mulling how far they should push their own nuclear plans is that they too can have a bomb—if they are prepared to be belligerent enough, for long enough.

Watch what he does, not what he says