The game has become all too familiar.
North Korea commits a provocative act, talks ensue, the North makes a series of promises in exchange for aid. Aid deliveries commence, the North fails to fully comply.
Last week Pyongyang drastically upped the ante by shelling a village on a South Korean island, killing two civilians and two South Korean marines, wounding 20 and leaving much of the village smoldering.
It was an outrageous move, even for the North Koreans. This time the pattern of the past should be broken: Pyongyang should not be rewarded with another agreement to supply fuel oil or build nuclear power plants or any other sort of aid.
Over the years the North has made and broken pacts almost with nonchalance. In 2005, for example, it promised to abandon all “nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs.”
A few weeks ago, Pyongyang invited experts to come have a look at a uranium-enrichment facility and nuclear reactor it was not supposed to have built.
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