And Then There's That Pesky Colossus On The Koren Peninsula

This from the Brookings Institution.

Wrong on North KoreaAmerica Abroad Weblog, July 13, 2006 cont occurs here -->Ivo H. Daalder, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies

"As for isolation leading to the North's collapse, the problem is that whether to isolate the North or not is a matter for Seoul and Beijing to decide, not Washington. There's little more we can do to isolate the North; we're all sanctioned out. But there's plenty Pyongyang's neighbors can do to life there even more unbearable. Yet, while we may see the collapse of an evil regime like the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as an unquestioned blessing, neighboring countries that will have to live the consequences of its implosion have a decidedly different view of the matter. They don't want to be responsible for the destitute millions that would come streaming across their borders - or have to provide the hundreds of billions of dollars necessary to turn things around in the North. Instead, their number one priority is to avoid the chaos that comes from collapse and disintegration - which is why basing a policy on the hope that China and the ROK will help bring about the North's collapse is so naïve and wrong-headed. "