A sounder US policy would start by making it clear to the DPRK that the US is indifferent to whether it ever has "normal" diplomatic relations with them, and that achieving that goal is entirely in their interest, not ours. We should make it clear that ties with the US will only come when North Korea becomes a normal country. If that is impossible (and it may well be), the US suffers no downside. In the meantime, we should insist that the North honor the commitments it has made but failed to follow, starting with the Agreed Framework. We should immediately re-impose sanctions and retaliate economically and politically each and every time the DPRK backslides. If not, we will see only the continuing and unjustifiable -- indeed inhumane -- propping up of the North Korean rogue regime. Moreover, they are watching us closely not only in the DPRK, but in Beijing and elsewhere around the world.
John Bolton is the senior vice president of the American Enterprise Institute. During the Bush administration, he served as an assistant secretary of state.
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