Untying the Gordian Knot of North Korea
By wchung | 23 Feb, 2025

The North Korean problem can be solved by a bold act of humility and courage by a U.S. leader.

North Korea is a geopolitical Gordian Knot tied by the superpowers during the height of the Cold War. Now that the U.S. remains the only true superpower, only the U.S. can untie it.

There’s no question the knot is well worth untying.

But for North Korea the industrial and trading powerhouse south of the DMZ remains a virtual island, denied efficient land links to the rest of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa that coud save it and its trading partners upwards of $40 billion a year in transportation and delay costs.

But for North Korea South Korea, Japan and the U.S. could lop off $60 billion in the costs associated with defending against a nation with 40,000 artillery pieces positioned within 25 miles of Seoul, maybe a dozen medium range missiles aimed at Tokyo and the potential to proliferate a few small nukes to hostile Middle-Eastern clients.

But for North Korea the dynamic economies of East Asia might form a common market to lower trade and security barriers and promote a level of dynamism that could match or surpass those of America or Western Europe.

And for all the wealth and potential wealth that could be freed up by the Knot’s untying, it can be achieved at no economic or political cost to the United States or South Korea. More likely, the leader who takes the bold steps needed to accomplish it will earn the kind of accolades that greeted Nixon’s visit to China.

The only things that prevents a U.S. leader from taking these relatively simple steps are ideology and pride, and obsolete ideology at that, and exhorbitantly costly pride.

Cold War U.S. ideology says that a communist regime that defies U.S. might and unlateral will must be cold-shouldered into collapse. The fact that this strategy apparently succeeded with the old USSR has given it a continued lease on life despite its questionable premise. The fact that only its breach helped birth modern U.S.-China relations seems to have been forgotten.

Richard Nixon’s week-long tour of China in February of 1972 was predeced by a secret trip by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The Chinese were flattered and disarmed by the implicit humility and respect shown by Nixon, and reciprocated with warmth and geopolitical support. By the time relations were fully normalized on January 1, 1979 China’s leadership had made up its mind to eat humble pie and accept western-style capitalism as the way to go. The ultimate result is a new economic superpower that has added immeasurably to global peace and prosperity — and created a bulwark against the kind of excesses that nearly brought the capitalist system to its knees in October of 2008.

Pride is a more difficult issue. China was a giant nation with a billion people. N. Korea is an economic dwarf with only 23 million, about the same number as 20 years ago, possibly a couple million fewer. It hardly seems deserving of the kind of shuttle diplomacy Nixon and Kissinger lavished on China.

And yet as the U.S. faces the prospects of a drawn out war against Muslim fundamentalism coupled with ballooning budget deficits that could produce runaway inflation for the next decade, turning a nasty little foe with nuclear capabilities and the ability to shake up global markets seems like an important achievement.

All it would take is a “secret” mission by Hillary Clinton, followed up by a visit by Barack Obama. The effort would win the humility and undying gratitude of Kim Jong-Il, especially as he struggles to lay the foundation for a workable succession that is likely to be rocky at best, one that could inadvertently open the floodgates to the kinds of conflicts and proliferations that keep leaders awake at night. It would also confirm Obama’s status as a truly new kind of U.S. leader who isn’t afraid to give respect to get respect.

Is there a chance that such a bold move could backfire, resulting in damage to U.S. stature as the world’s sole superpower? The question is absurd. The answer will free the entire world from the threat of calamities posed by petty pride on all sides.