Three days after North Korea conducted its second nuclear test, public attention has already shifted to President Obama’s Supreme Court pick and there seems to be little consensus about how the United States and its allies should respond. The Obama administration seems intent on continuing the Bush administration’s failed policy of diplomacy vice action. UN Ambassador Susan Rice, who on Tuesday said that North Korea will “pay a price” for its actions, remains closeted with her UN Security Council colleagues in meetings, at least for the few hours each day she is not doing TV hits, with little to show for her efforts thus far. Despite the supposed paucity of good options, there are plenty of actions that the United States can and should take. Carolyn Leddy, Christian Whiton, and I outlined several of them earlier this month. Before attempting to pass a new meaningless resolution in the Security Council, the Obama administration should take a step the Bush administration never did–actually implement UNSCR 1718’s ban on North Korean exports of conventional weapons and sensitive dual-use goods and its ban on the transfer of similar items to North Korea. Despite South Korea’s agreement this week to join the Proliferation Security Initiative, none of this illicit trade to and from North Korea will be halted unless the U.S. Navy begins to stop and conduct inspections of North Korean ships on a regular basis, something that the United States has been unwilling to do until now. A sea blockade combined with increased pressure on China to monitor flights into and out of North Korea would send a serious message to Pyongyang and potentially make the costs of doing business with Pyongyang too high for some of its customers. In addition, the U.S. should immediately designate additional North Korean entities and individuals involved in proliferation, including those who were behind the construction of the nuclear reactor in Syria that was destroyed by Israel in September 2007. For good measure, they might want to designate a few of the Syrians involved, something that has yet to be done given the State Department’s unwillingness at the time to let unpleasant truths about North Korea’s actions upset Chris Hill’s engagement strategy. Finally, if the Obama administration is willing to do little more than twiddle its thumbs at the UN, Congress should seriously consider providing some backbone on this issue. One option might be a North Korean Liberation Act to provide adequate funding for dissidents and better coordination of U.S. efforts to overthrow peacefully the regime. Because if recent press accounts are correct, those chosen to take over once the Dear Leader departs this earth are not going to be better interlocutors for the next Chris Hill that the State Department bureaucracy produces.
