The Marmot’s Hole

Speaking of Big Nic Eberstadt, check out his last piece on North Korea over at the American Enterprise Institute — it’s a winner:

How many times can someone sell the same dead puppy to the same bunch of suckers? In effect, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il is currently conducting an international experiment to determine the precise answer to this question.

The goods “the Dear Leader” has been hawking, of course aren’t really non-performing pets–they’re phony nuclear deals. And the designated “marks” in this scam aren’t schoolchildren, or simpletons at a county fair–they’re top Western and Asian statesmen.

Today, once again, Pyongyang is asking the United States and its Northeast Asian allies and associates to pony up to buy a this-time-we-really-mean-it shutdown of the DPRK’s nuclear weapons program.

Given the high stakes in this North Korean sting, and the sophistication of the intended victims, you’d think the game would have been shut down early. But you’d be wrong. The latest hapless steps toward another session of “Six Party talks” on the North Korean nuclear drama, in fact, suggest that the usual dupes are assuming position for another round of North Korean atomic bait-and-switch.

A little background may elucidate the present state of play. The dynastic enterprise known as the DPRK has been open for business since 1948, and for most of that time it has been building, and gaming, its nuclear program. Long ago, Kim & Son figured out a shakedown formula for extracting protection money from abroad in return for promising to scrap the nuke program.

It works like this: Make a Deal. Break the deal. Then demand a new deal for more, issuing dark threats until you get what you want.

That gambit, to be sure, could be dismissed as little more than basic coursework for Mafia 101. But any Goodfella would have to admit: so far, the formula’s worked pretty well for Pyongyang.

Read the rest on your own. Pronto!