The best way to keep North Korea from attacking is to open lines of communication.
To the editor: Robert L. Gallucci’s insightful article banks that the nuclear deterrence that kept the nuclear peace during the Cold War will work on the Korean peninsula. (“ If we’re going to rule out negotiations with North Korea, we have to be ready for war ,” Opinion, March 23)
In a passing remark he notes that Pyongyang’s rationality could be an issue. Indeed, North Korea is the most isolated, paranoid and belligerent nation to acquire the bomb. But irrationality may be the least of our problems.
A North Korean intelligence failure, a misjudgment, a military incident that escalates or a concern that the United States may initiate a preemptive Israeli-like strike on its nuclear facilities would be a rational foundation for nuclear use. The challenge for Washington is to reduce these risks.
It could start by accepting what it cannot change — Kim Jong-Un’s regime is going to keep the bomb, which it sees as a crutch for survival — and without lessening its defense commitment to South Korea, the U.
