HONOLULU -- Ever since the North Korean fireworks display of missile launches on July 4, the world has watched the spectacle of political leaders and diplomats of America, China, Japan and South Korea scurrying for a response to Pyongyang's leader, Kim Jong Il.
Most of the thrashing about has focused on traditional diplomacy with an occasional suggestion of economic sanctions or dark hints of military action, all of which have been shown to be ineffective or infeasible. Thus maybe the time has come for a new, possibly radical strategy, one that might be called the Triple-I strategy: ignore, isolate and implode.
A Japanese authority on North Korea, Masao Okonogi of Keio University, points to the nature of North Korea's maneuvers. The missiles, he says, were "only Act 1 in North Korean brinkmanship." Since Kim's mastery of brinkmanship is widely recognized, the new posture would seek to take away that brink.