In the aftermath of the end of the Cold War, North Korea continues to be involved in high-stakes international brinkmanship with the world's only remaining superpower. I would like to argue here that Washington should disentangle itself from Northeast Asia and pass on responsibilities for regional security to Seoul and Tokyo.
Northeast Asia will never be fully secure until the communist dictatorship of North Korea passes from the scene.
That the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is able to create so much unease, even in the capital of the world's sole superpower by threatening one missile test demonstrates the foolhardiness of America's continued entanglement in essentially peripheral security matters.
Washington should begin disengaging from the region's unsettling quarrels.
By any normal measure, the DPRK should be irrelevant. Bankrupt, starving and bereft of allies, Pyongyang is becoming the least of nations.
Arrayed against it is an imposing coalition. The Republic of Korea (ROK) possesses 30 times the GDP and twice the population of the North. Japan is the world's second-ranking economic power with a limited but potent military. Russia was once allied with Pyongyang, but is now shipping weapons to Seoul to pay off its debts. China has far more economic links -- trade and investment -- with the South.
The DPRK does possess a numerically large army, supplemented by missile development and atomic research programs. There is, however, little behind this seemingly imposing edifice. Pyongyang's conventional capabilities have fallen sharply, while its nuclear program is only presumed. North Korea's missiles are few in number and highly inaccurate.
The North's real trump is its willingness to play the game of high brinkmanship.
The result is usually feverish excitement abroad. For instance, Pyongyang's missile gambit caused US House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman of New York to worry that one "cannot overstate the danger this development could present to our national security."
Although the new weapon probably could hit the American state of Alaska, it is North Korea that would disappear in a radioactive cloud.
Moreover, the DPRK already possesses a missile capable of hitting both the South and Japan.
The prospective missile test looks to be just one more attempt to shake loose some of the West's spare change.
For all of the perversities of North Korean behavior, the regime's conduct remains far more benign than in the past.
The administration has an opportunity to reconfigure present policy with the completion of former Defense Secretary William Perry's review of US policy towards the North.
America's overriding goal should be to maintain peace on the peninsula until North Korea falls into the great dustbin of history. To encourage that end, modest concessions like the easing of sanctions proposed by the administration are good investments.
But Washington should reverse today's dynamic, under which Pyongyang misbehaves in the hope of receiving more benefits. Although the US and its allies should continue discussing planned missile tests with the DPRK -- North Korea has agreed to temporarily halt such launches -- they should not provide an explicit quid pro quo.
Instead, they should indicate that a number of benefits will be forthcoming if Pyongyang stops needlessly antagonizing its neighbors. And they should deliver.
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