Blatant Self-Promotion Vol. II

I am in The Daily News again, this time in the Letters to the Editor section. I'm not sure why this excites me so much, especially considering I once wrote a bunch of feature stories for The Montreal Gazette, which has a circulation of like 300,000 as compared to the Daily's +/- 100,000, but who knows... maybe I'm getting old and washed up and giddy to see my stuff in print somewhere. :) In any case, here she is:

Korean Conundrum

To the editor:
Re: Your Oct. 10 editorial, Nuclear Club Gains News Member:
This editorial propoagates two misunderstandings about North Korea: that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is mad and plans to nuke the world, and that only pushing North Korea will solve this problem.

The record of evidence points to the opposite of these conclusions.

North Korea has shown no ability to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile that could be delivered to South Korea or Japan. Nor would it want to any time soon, as such an act would result in the regime's immediate destruction by American, Japanese and possibly South Korean forces.

Since the U.S. administration adpoted a hardline approach toward North Korea in 2003, pushing the country has gone nowhere. Offering the country positive incentives in exchange for co-operation on the nuclear issues, and negative incetives if it does not co-operate has a proven positive record.

Such an approach resulted in a 1994 agreement under which North Korea' nuclear program was frozen. In the end, both U.S. and North Korea broke the agreement. And the possibility that North Korea will cheat on any agreement the outside world makes is something to consider.

But while this may be true, a short-term, "carrot-and-stick" solution that limits North Korea's nuclear program is much more desirable than attempting to sanction a country to death that simply will not die — Chinese support or not.

The editing job is a bit hacky, and misses the point that a cheating North Korea still must be dealt with in the long run. But, otherwise, it beats the two lines I got in yesterday's paper:

Local reaction to nuke test low key

[...]

Christopher LaRoche, a Dalhousie University researcher, said he wasn't surprised at the reported test, but said it remains to be seen what impact it will have.

Turning to a plan that offers economic incentives for disarmament may be the best solution, LaRoche said, if it means opening up North Korea to the world.

Well, I suppose you get a semi-full picture if you read both of them in tandem. More updates to come!