A likely story

North Korea could be persuaded to disarm with strong incentives to help reverse its economic crisis, according to South Korea's nuclear envoy.

No they can't. North Korea is run by possibly the most evil person on the planet. He would rather watch 10% of his population die (which he has) than give up the reins of power that he wields. He would rather see people eat grass, and tree bark, and leaves than give an inch with regard to his dictatorship. He would rather grow poppies for opium and tobacco for counterfeit cigarettes on the less than 30% of arable land in his country than try to do crazy things like get his people fed.

This is a man who has convinced his countrymen that not only are they superior to the rest of the world (which is shut off from them to make direct comparison rather difficult), but that in any war between the DPRK and the US, they will win with 1950-1970s technology and Juche (self reliance).

Of all the enemies that we have in the world, the one that I would be most concerned about acquiring a nuclear weapon is North Korea - because of all the nations in the world, I think their leader is the one most likely to use one, and their people have a fanatical love for their omnipotent dear leader that rivals the love of the pharaohs, and believe what they hear from him and his state controlled news service (for anyone who bitches about the MSM's slant, I encourage you to look up KCNA some day).

Unfortunately, we are not currently in a situation where we can effectively handle the situation. We are stuck in a babysitting action in Iraq, trying to keep brothers and sisters from beating the hell out of each other, and we are still in Afghanistan, from what I understand. Which leaves us somewhat shorthanded to deal with other nations that might get nasty ideas in their heads. We alienated much of the rest of the world with our stubbornness in invading Iraq, our "listen to us or you're nothing but worthless cowards, we don't need you anyway - we can handle it ourselves it'll be so easy" approach to diplomacy sort of backfired on us there. And we effectively shut off much of our chances at open-ended negotiation with the Chonger when we referred to his country as part of the "Axis of evil," which told him exactly what we thought about him - so what motivation does he have to work with us?

For the record, I don't think diplomacy would work in the DPRK, either - the "Sunshine Policy" and the Clinton administration pretty much just propped up a one-legged dictatorship that needed a crutch.

For all the talk of a regime change - we chose the wrong one for the wrong reasons. Iraq was not a multinational threat at the time - North Korea was and is. Additionally, it would have been MUCH easier to rebuild North Korea's infrastructure, because South Korea is right there, and it works pretty well, and it is not just willing to help rebuild the land of their brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers, but they are anxious to do so. It's this anxiousness to help that the North preys on so effectively, and why diplomacy can never work, because they don't have anything to lose by lying.

They've not been trustworthy for too long - don't give them the benefit of the doubt now.