Why North Korea Wants Nukes

There is a new Asia Times article out today by William Polk, that discusses North Korea’s nuclear program. The article begins by giving the mandatory why America is the reason for all the bad things in the world that is now prevalent is most Asia Times articles. Then it gets into why certain countries are trying to build nuclear weapons including North Korea. Here is Polk’s reasoning for why the North Koreans want nuclear weapons:

This, in brief, is what I guess a North Korean policy planner would start with. So how would he advise his government. Putting myself in his shoes, I guess that he would advise that, in light of American pronouncements and actions, North Korea would be foolish to give up its nuclear force. Indeed, to deter an American attack, it should enhance its military capacity.

Psychologically, moreover, it should seek to convince the US that it would fight the Americans and their allies, with what the Israelis called the “Samson option”, that is, even to the point of national suicide. Further threats are likely only to convince the North Korean government of its danger and so increase its determination to protect itself at any cost.

Really nothing new here. We all know the North Koreans want nuclear weapons not only to protect themselves from American invasion but also to extract foreign aid to keep the regime a float. Now the trick for them is going to be getting the international aid and secretly keeping their nuclear weapons. The prior disarmament framework by President Clinton that was meant to stop their nuclear program didn’t work because the North Koreans went ahead and kept making weapons anyway while enjoying the free international aid because there was no rigid inspection guidelines to ensure compliance. They just kept real quiet about it and gave the appearance of behaving. This will be the same deal they will be looking for at this next round of talks starting this month on the 25th of July. The North Koreans just want a nice face saving deal that gives them the free food, money, and the oil they need to keep the regime going plus have enough flexibility in the agreement to be able to covertly hide their weapons program.

In turn they will keep quiet and give the appearance of good behavior to the international community, all the foreign diplomats can pat each other on the back about what a great job they did, heck maybe somebody can even get a Nobel Peace Prize out of this like Kim Dae Jung did back in 2000. All the while the North Koreans will be sitting back enjoying their spoils, their people still starving, make no progress on human rights, and continue to covertly make nuclear weapons.