Readers offer their ideas: Pursue negotiations, a military response, a mutual assured destruction policy or Chinese leverage.
To the Editor:
Re “ The Way Forward on North Korea ” (editorial, July 5) :
North Korea’s successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach Alaska has reduced to ashes the United States policy of the last three presidents. We have tried turning on the screws, joint military exercises, sanctions and relying on China, and this finely tuned strategy has failed.
Talking to Kim Jong-un’s government is, and has long been, the only reasonable solution. Otherwise, the options are narrow: continuation of an outdated policy or war.
ROBERT CAMBRIA, NEW YORK
The writer is former coordinator of the Committee for a New Korea Policy.
To the Editor:
This editorial rightly points out that relying on China and sanctions have not worked with regard to North Korea. But diplomatic measures simply will not work.
North Korea has continuously refined and improved its nuclear program. The Agreed Framework signed in 1994 merely froze the North’s plutonium program. In 2002, we discovered evidence that the North had been advancing a separate highly enriched uranium program all along. The idea that engaging with the North this time will lead to a better result is, to me, the definition of insanity. It’s time to take military action and rid North Korea of all its nuclear capabilities. The alternative, doing nothing, is far more dangerous.
DANIEL S. SMITH
NORTHVILLE, MICH.
