North Korea Deserves the Diplomacy of Silence by E. Luttwak
In recent weeks, North Korea has detonated a nuclear bomb and violated U.N. Security Council prohibitions by launching ballistic missiles. It has threatened war against South Korea, repudiating the July 1953 armistice agreement and thus ostensibly reverting to a state of war with the United States. It has also sentenced two American journalists — Euna Lee and Laura Ling — to 12 years in a labor camp.
These are extreme provocations. Only a military attack could exceed them. Our response, of course, must be diplomatic. But only a very special kind of diplomacy can yield positive results: a diplomacy of silence.
Under it, no communications whatever would be sent to the North Korean regime, there would be no informal dialogues with any North Korean diplomats anywhere, and, above all, no attempt would be made to renew negotiations in any format.