The Scramble For The Bomb

Kim Jong Il's nuclear blast in North Korea signaled an unsettling new era in the nuclear-arms race. The rules of the cold war have been replaced with a crude survival-of-the-fittest code. Many readers blamed the U.S. for misplaced attention on Iraq, allowing the North Korean threat to increase

"When outlaws get the bomb" [Oct. 23], on the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear-weapons test, overlooked the significance of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the only binding, multilateral commitment to the goal of disarmament by nuclear-weapons states. Signatories are obligated to negotiate and achieve the elimination of nuclear arms. To have any hope of stopping proliferation and creating security, the world's powers have to work toward disarmament.
Fredrik S. Heffermehl
Oslo

Like all nuclear-weapons programs, North Korea's should be a concern for everyone. The notion of who is an outlaw and who occupies the moral high ground on enforcing nuclear nonproliferation isn't as clear to me as your article makes out. I suspect that the U.S.'s current work on tactical nuclear weapons and our unwillingness to reduce our inventory of warheads are in violation of the npt — making the U.S. an outlaw. If we're including violent tendencies in an analysis of risk, the U.S. is the only nuclear power to have used those weapons on human beings. I would say our role in leading nonproliferation enforcement efforts is somewhat hypocritical. We need to set a better example.
Timothy C. Hohn
Lake Forest Park, Washington, U.S.

Negotiation is by far the best way to defuse North Korea's nuclear crisis. But if severe international sanctions are necessary, we shouldn't expect cooperation from China because its national security would be threatened by a sudden collapse of North Korea. There would be a huge influx of Korean refugees, and the power vacuum might be filled with military forces headed by the U.S. While the world condemns Pyongyang for its irresponsible nuclear test, we should perhaps also ponder its real fear of extermination by a superpower and its need for self-protection. Why does Washington still obstinately and arrogantly refuse to sit down with Pyongyang for direct bilateral talks, respect its sovereignty and give it the chance to open up and reform?
Stephen Kwok Wai Chan
Hong Kong

In the run-up to the Iraq war, I recall National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice stating that, in lieu of solid proof that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." I also recall getting into heated debates and insisting that North Korea was the actual case of a dictator working toward acquiring wmd. While the Bush Administration pursued a war in Iraq, the smoking gun turned into a mushroom cloud in Pyongyang. The Bush Administration has failed miserably in addressing the North Korean threat, and its policies (or lack thereof) have made us all less safe.
Nana Kwamie
Toronto

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has clearly shown with the recent nuclear test that bilateral negotiations are meaningless to him. He has made laughingstocks of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, whose administrations engaged in direct talks with North Korea about nuclear proliferation. Kim has also made fools of South Korean Presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun. Who else in the world is going to dream of engaging in bilateral talks with Kim Jong Il again, unless in delusion?
Ke Park
Anaheim, California, U.S.

Is The U.N. Obsolete?
In his essay disparaging the U.N., Charles Krauthammer argued that violence and greed are "the natural way of nations" [Oct. 23]. That is the lazy man's excuse for resisting change and progress. As a means to create security and stability, war has failed over the millenniums. Our experiment in international collaboration, nonviolent conflict resolution and mutually beneficial partnerships — still in its infancy — will continue to suffer missteps and setbacks, not the least of which include the present U.S. Administration's uninformed and shortsighted policies. My hope for the future lies in the goals, purposes and accomplishments of the U.N.
Peg Maher
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.

I applaud Krauthammer's realistic take on the North Korean issue — that a "dynamic, capitalist, reunited Korea" would be stiff competition for a China that aspires to impose its will on East Asia, hence Beijing keeps its unruly neighbor alive and refuses to support tough U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Let's hope for the sake of the Korean people that China does not succeed in promoting its self-interests and that there may be a reunited Korea before our lives are over.
Juwon Yang
Los Angeles

Krauthammer rightly commented that the U.N. has failed to achieve many of the goals for which it was established. Taiwan is well aware of this painful reality, having endured exclusion from the supposedly universal world body because of Chinese pressure for more than three decades. But there is no civilized alternative to the principle of international cooperation in pursuit of the common good. The world's only hope for the ethical, nonviolent resolution of conflict — whether in the Taiwan Strait, on the Korean peninsula or anywhere else — lies in the collective cooperation of U.S.-led democracies. Give up that hope, and we are lost indeed.
Ben Shao
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
New York City

It is time for western countries to find alternatives to the U.N. not only because it is incapable of preventing wars, as Krauthammer pointed out, but also because it has become an ideological bureaucracy that regards all cultural values as equal. The U.N. has allowed Islamic member states to maintain Shari'a laws, which violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an agreement designed to promote gender equality and freedom of expression. While Islamic fundamentalists intimidate the West by manufacturing outrage against novels, cartoons, lectures, essays and theater productions, the U.N. complies with Muslim prohibitions against speaking freely about Islam. The freedom to think and express oneself — and even mock authority figures — is the bedrock of Western values, and to defend this freedom, it appears necessary to disband the U.N. and develop other international and regional organizations.
Jiti Khanna
Vancouver

Cutting Our Losses
Leslie Gelb's viewpoint "The Dominoes That Did Not Fall" [Oct. 23] argued that, after the U.S. defeat in Vietnam, "the dominoes did not fall." Well, they didn't fall as far as the U.S. was concerned. But maybe someone should ask the Cambodians about what happened after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam. I think the families and friends of anyone who was killed under Pol Pot would have a different story.
Lauren Cook
Dallas

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