In Your Face

North Korea knows how to be belligerent. Its diplomatic relations is “in your face.” The government there already has South Korea and the US in a press from which there are few good options for escape. Negotiations don’t work. Sanctions have failed. The Chinese are not helping. Military activity threatens an all-out war on the peninsula, which would be good for no one. The North now has an ICBM and is almost capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to Alaska.  At its rate of progress, it will soon be able to reach cities on the West Coast. What the North apparently wants is for the US to abandon South Korea and leave it to its fate. This the US has sworn it will not do. There appears to be no good way to foster relations between the North and the rest of the world. Its leadership has isolated itself from outside influence and it glories in being a rogue state. There are times when persuasion fails, and this is one.