Word: pyongyang
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...provocative way to do it, and next time it will only be riskier. Such a strike could be seen by the North Korean leadership for what it is: a limited act of defense of the U.S. homeland against a gathering threat, and not an overall attack on North Korea. Pyongyang tries carefully to cultivate the impression that it will lash out in response to any action against it, however limited. But would it truly retaliate against South Korea, which has been working hard to improve North-South relations, in response to a U.S. airstrike? Such a war would surely...
...risk of inaction will prove far greater. The Pyongyang regime will view its stockpile of missiles and nuclear material as tipping the regional balance in its favor and providing a shield behind which it can pursue its interests with impunity. Worse, North Korea has a long history of selling its advanced weapons to countries in the Middle East, and it operates a black market in other forms of contraband. Like Pakistan's rogue nuclear engineer A.Q. Khan, North Korean officials might be tempted to sell the ingredients of their arsenal to terrorists. Finally, many expect North Korea's failed economy...
...Korea would suffer harsh consequences if it went ahead with a test, the U.S. and its allies may be confronting the reality that there are precious few options to turn those warnings into punishments. The crisis - if that is what it really is - won't necessarily play out as Pyongyang desires. But it has a good chance of getting some of what it wants in a resumption of negotiations over a package of rewards for North Korea in exchanged for it changing its behavior...
...Both China and South Korea may instead use their considerable engagement with North Korea's economy to quietly but firmly prod Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. But they, along with Russia, may put as much pressure on the Bush administration - to offer North Korea security guarantees as part of a grand bargain to resolve the nuclear issue...
...South Korea and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Even the Bush administration, which rejected the Clinton-era approach as rewarding North Korea's bad behavior, was forced to move in the same direction by joining the six-party process in 2002, after first spurning the idea of offering Pyongyang incentives to change its ways...