In succeeding months the US should drop additional economic restrictions, offer diplomatic recognition and cancel future joint ROK-US military exercises.
South Korea should expand its so-called sunshine policy. Japan should dangle the possibility of expanded diplomatic and economic ties.
The allies should give the DPRK increasing benefits when it behaves, not when it misbehaves. Should it revert to its policy of disruptive belligerence, all three countries should retaliate quickly but quietly.
They should adopt an official attitude of insouciance -- who cares what the North does? However, without public fanfare or threats, which would likely make the North more obdurate, the allied states should slow or suspend positive movement on other issues.
The goal should be to squeeze the North, but not too hard. Again, the objective is to push the DPRK toward a more positive stance without creating either a potentially violent implosion or causing it to strike out.
For the same reason the US and its allies should fulfill their commitments under the Framework Accord. Welshing, and thereby risking a restart of the nuclear crisis, would benefit no one. Over the long term, Washington should disentangle itself from Northeast Asia.
The US should step back, leaving Seoul and Tokyo to take the lead in dealing with the North. More important, Washington should develop a phased withdrawal program for its troops, and terminate the defense treaty when the pullout is complete.
The ROK should then challenge the North to respond positively by demobilizing some army units and withdrawing some advanced forces from the Demilitarized Zone.
The South's private message should be more blunt: negotiate for serious arms reduction or face a crushing arms race (including missile development) which North Korea cannot win. And the ROK and Japan should expand security cooperation that, despite some recent positive steps, remains minimal.
Pyongyang's expressed willingness to back off its planned missile test offers only a temporary respite in a continuing game of international chicken.
The US should begin shifting responsibility for security in Northeast Asia onto its allies, who benefit the most from stability. The Cold War is over; it is time to terminate America's obsolete Cold War deployments.
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington and author of Tripwire: Korea and US Foreign Policy in a Changed World.?
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