ed Iranian lesson for NK

Choice for Kim Jong-un: embrace change or else

North Korea has had one of its last remaining friends turn their back on it.

Iran is a long-term ally of the North, having helped each other in their respective pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The two were so close that Pyongyang gave Tehran missile technology in return for help in making nuclear weapons. The two were grouped in what U.S. President George W. Bush called an “axis of evil” together with Iraq.

Now, their statuses can’t be more divergent.

Iran has cut a deal with the United States and other big powers in which it decided to freeze its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions, gaining access to tens of billions of dollars in frozen assets around the world and selling oil for billions more.

In this new era of opportunity, Iran welcomed President Park Geun-hye, offering her and her business entourage a chance to cash in on up to $45.6 billion in business deals.

Being determined to push for openness and prosperity, its leaders ― reformist President Hassan Rouhani and the theocracy’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ― promised to be more friendly with Seoul, giving their support to its efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in what appeared to be nothing less than a repudiation of Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Of course, Rouhani’s remarks targeted Israel’s nuclear weapons as well.

Ahead of the Seventh Workers’ Party Congress, the first in 36 years, Kim Jong-un, the 33-year-old leader of the international pariah nation, should wonder why his country’s friends are leaving it. .

Above all, it’s the change of zeitgeist. In the time of his father and grandfather, it was the confrontation of ideology: capitalism vs. communism. Communism lost. China has adopted the “black-cat-white-cat” pragmatism, which is a form of capitalism at its core.

Now, the new game lies about how to prosper for individuals and the nation. Iran has been engrossed in it, while China is so good that it is now rivaling the United State in the latter’s own game of becoming wealthy.

Remaining friends with the North is getting in their way.

Now, the North should think carefully about what options it has, and stop being hysterical about President Park’s successful Iran tour. First, it can continue to press ahead on its nuclear and missile programs at the risk of alienating its “remaining friends,” if there are any, and bringing itself to the brink of financial and existential collapse. Already the signs are unmistakable as a virtual global blockade is in place, threatening to bring the country to a complete halt.

The other option is to follow Iran’s model.

The international community has promised the North the start of negotiations about security guarantees as it has demanded, and a massive rescue plan to transform its economy.

It is true that the North is different from Iran, being rich in oil and quite open to the outside.

It is possible for Kim to get deposed and end up like Saddam of Iraq or Gaddafi of Libya but it is worth remembering that in either way, he doesn’t have time on his side.

Unless he commits to the first option and soon, he will end up with no options at all.

If he is not sure, he can ask his former Iranian friends about it.