I have been writing about North Korea’s provocations for a while and so far, since the start of the new administration, nothing has been done except issuing “strongly worded” condemnations. In the meantime, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has tested more than half a dozen missiles, threatened the annihilation of South Korea, pulled out of the six-party nuclear negotiations and conducted another underground nuclear test with a weapon about as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. Well, finally, the United Nations Security Council has decided that North Korea’s actions are unacceptable and they have agreed on tougher sanctions.

While I commend the fact that something is being done, the reality is that the world stood by and did nothing while North Korea escalated from threats to missile tests to exploding a nuclear weapon. While an aloof President of the United States talked about disarmament in Europe, a tyrannical madman was launching missiles over Japan in Asia. What the new administration thought was mere saber-rattling has turned into a real threat. In Alaska, worried residents are fully aware that they are within range of North Korean missiles and are not confident in the administration’s assurances that the military will be able to “deal with it.” The UN’s recent actions do not offer much more comfort. To impose tighter sanctions on a country whose leadership was willing to starve millions to death in the 90’s because they preferred investing in their weapons programs may not have the intended effect. What is needed is a set of sanctions that more directly affect the ruling party and their weapons programs. What is needed is a set of sanctions that weaken the grip of the government on North Korean society. What is needed is a set of sanctions that will make China reconsider its nearly unconditional support of its neighbor. Only then can sanctions make a difference… and unfortunately, there is no other realistic course of action in the near-term, especially since the United States is currently run by an administration that believes in the inherent “goodness” of murderous dictators and is willing to stake our security on that belief. Let’s hope that the sanctions are able to put an end to North Korea’s weapons programs before those weapons are ever used against anyone.

-AG