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(EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on Feb. 15)

All News 07:05 February 15, 2016

Regime change
Time for positive shift in NK policy

It is time to call a spade a spade. North Korea has said it will become a nuclear state. It has matched its words with action.

If there has been any doubt, its two latest provocations have proved otherwise. Last month, the North tested what it claimed was a small-scale H-bomb. This month the North fired a rocket that can be converted to a long-range missile.

So far, South Korea has said it will help the North if it gives up its nuclear development.

That is nothing but wishful thinking. Now Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, are trying to persuade Beijing to stop protecting its client state and join an effort at the United Nations to punish the North for its provocative acts. The three nations are separately preparing steps against Pyongyang. Seoul, for one, has done what is seen as an extreme measure, having pulled out of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, the 13-year-old last remnant of inter-Korean cooperation.
The North has not budged and it will not because it has no other choice.

First, the ruling Kim dynasty knows well that the nuclear weapons and missiles are the key to its survival. Without them, it would collapse.
Kim Jong-un cannot afford to open up to the outside for full economic cooperation because it would cause the public to become disenchanted and rebel against him. The third-generation heir would not have a chance of holding on to power in an "open" North Korea. His double take of nuclear development and economic development is unrealistic.

Therefore, its survival strategy is to portray the U.S. as public enemy No. 1 and give North Koreans an object to hate. This is why the North claims its missiles and nuclear weapons target the U.S., which is far stronger than the impoverished North. The South is also included on the North's list of imaginary list of foes as a U.S. puppet that needs toppling.

As it is beyond doubt that the North will not give up its weapons of mass destruction, it is time for Seoul to make a shift in its bona fide policy toward the North and seek a regime change in Pyongyang. Or, if that is too controversial, Seoul at least should not rule it out.
There are two reasons for this.

First, adopting a regime change as policy, hidden or ostensible, would help harden Seoul's policy toward the North, giving it flexibility to soften it depending on the North's behavior. So far, it has been the other way around, primarily taking a soft approach but occasionally getting tough.
The existing approach has determined Seoul's North Korea policy ― whether it was Kim Dae-jung's reconciliatory "sunshine" policy or the current "trustpolitik", both of which have failed spectacularly.
The Gaeseong closure could be a starting point for such a policy change, if all other efforts to punish the North for its errant behavior fall into place, and put a strong stranglehold on the North.

Second, from an international perspective, Seoul could gain a greater leadership role in dealing with the North one-on-one. Seoul is a leading emerging economy and an active member of the global community, but the North has relegated the South to the role of bystander in international decisions that affect its fate.
It is time for Seoul to take charge of its own fate and be responsible for it. President Park Geun-hye's tussle with Chinese President Xi Jin-ping for tougher U.N. action against the North can be interpreted as one example of Seoul trying to influence the process and outcome of decisions to deal with the North's challenge.
(END)

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