Pyongyang Had Better Avoid Isolation, Self-Destruction

To call North Korea the world's last Stalinist county is no longer relevant, as its Dear Leader Kim Jong-il has outdone the late autocratic Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in many ways. The word Stalinist literally means a follower of Stalin and Stalinism. And Stalinism usually refers to the bureaucratic and authoritarian exercise of state power and mechanistic application of Marxist-Leninist principles associated with Stalin.

The track record of the Kim regime shows it's second to none in brinkmanship and one-upmanship. It's safe to say that the North's nuclear blackmail has no parallel in history. The impoverished communist state has continued to play its nuclear card since it created its first nuclear crisis in 1993. It reached a Geneva framework agreement with the U.S. in 1994 under which it was supposed to freeze its Yongbyon reactor in return for two light-water reactors for power generation.

The second crisis erupted in 2002 when the North scrapped the Geneva accord and restarted the Yongbyon facility, infuriated by then-U.S. President George W. Bush's hard-line policy toward Pyongyang. After conducting a nuclear experiment in October 2006, the North reached a Feb. 13, 2007 agreement to scrap its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy aid and other incentives.

It's quite regrettable that the recalcitrant North has dragged its feet on complete denuclearization by refusing to verify its declared nuclear activities. The conservative Bush government had to hand over the nuclear issue to the new administration of President Barack Obama, who pledged to take a more conciliatory stance toward North Korea and other states hostile to the U.S.

However, the power transition was not enough to make a breakthrough in the nuclear standoff with Pyongyang. The problem turned for the worse when North Korea refused to unclench its fist and grab an extended hand not only from Seoul but also from Washington; it's only been trying to step up its notorious brinkmanship and nuclear rattling. The North test-fired its long-range missile disguised as a satellite launch on April 5 in defiance of warnings from the international community.

On Wednesday, the Kim Jong-il regime threatened to conduct a second nuclear test and test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile in retaliation for the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of the missile launch. The threat came after the U.N. imposed financial and trade sanctions on three North Korean companies for the rocket firing. Pyongyang has also restarted extracting plutonium from spent fuel rods in its nuclear facilities, further derailing the six-nation denuclearization talks.

To the dismay of the world, the North is trying to bring about a third nuclear crisis. There's no doubt that Pyongyang intends to go back to square one by backpedaling on the long years of multilateral negotiations for its nuclear disarmament. It's also apparent that the North is not willing to give up its nuclear ambitions.

But the Kim regime should realize that its outdated brinkmanship tactics and nuclear blackmail will inevitably put the North deeper into isolation and lead to self-destruction. Thus, we urge Pyongyang to return to the table and sincerely discuss ways of moving toward complete denuclearization, reconciliation and peace.