Ronald Reagan delivers a message to the Soviet Union in 1987:

Should South Korea follow in his footsteps in facing down the

North Korean menace?

'Pulling a Ronald Reagan': How South Korea Can Defeat the North (The Korea Times, South Korea)

"The Strategic Defense Initiative, also called Star Wars ... lured the Soviets into an arms race it couldnt win. ... Lets do a Reagan: play along with the North in a game that it calls its own, but statistics show it can never win. According to official data, our population is twice as large as that of the North; our GDP 40 times the Norths and GNP per capita close to 20 times larger ... All Pyongyang needs may be a little push."

By Oh Young-jin

February 15, 2013

South Korea - Korea Times - Original Article (English)

South Korea President-elect Park Geun-hye: Taking office on February 25, is the dictarship of Kim Jong-un sending her a nuclear warning? And will she respond with toughness - or conciliation? BBC NEWS VIDEO: What does the North Korea nuclear program mean to the people inside the country?, Feb. 14, 00:01:47

Have we been waging the wrong war against North Korea? And can our new president, Park Geun-hye, redirect our strategy and finish off that feral beast once and for all?

These are complicated questions, but from the grave, the ghost of one complicated and yet simple man may beg to answer. I refer to Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, who during his 1981-1989 tenure is credited with delivering the push to the Soviet Union which led it to the brink of collapse.

We have done virtually everything possible to deal with North Korea. Yet with its third underground test, the north has brought itself further along to becoming a nuclear state.

For ten years under Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, we employed the Sunshine Policy of engagement with the North, in the hope of leading it to a doctor-assisted, death. It did not.

President Lee Myung-bak has applied the rule of reciprocity in dealing with the North. But this obviously hasn't worked, either.

So we may feel like we have run out of options - but Reagan would say otherwise. His winning strategy was reflected by three landmark events.

On March 8, 1983, he first called the Soviet Union an evil empire, marking the start of the largest peacetime military buildup in U.S. history, and prodding America's archrival into a competition it was bound to lose.

At that time, the Soviets were under a post-Brezhnev series of weak leaders, including Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko and Mikhail Gorbachev. America's gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP) per capita was more than double that of the Soviets, although with a high degree of certainty, one may assume that the latter inflated its figures.

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

Global Times, China: U.S. Exacerbates 'Profound' North Korean Insecurity

The Independent, U.K.: Pyongyang Throws Guantlet Down for China's Leaders

The Telegraph, U.K.: The North Korea Nuclear Crisis 'Explodes'

Debka File, Israel: North Korea and Iran: Partners on Nukes and Missiles

Tribune de Geneve, Switzerland: The Moon and the Chinese; Mars and the United States

Rodong Sinmun, North Korea: American Space Crime Must be Stopped!

Global Times, China: After Launch, China Should Offer Pyongyang 'Sense of Security'

Korea Central News, North Korea: Security Council Must Apologize for Being 'American Marionette'

Korea Times, South Korea: Seoul Condemns North Korea's Nuclear Test

The Hankyoreh, South Korea: North Korea May be Developing Hydrogen Bomb

Korea Herald, South Korea: North Korea Device 'Weaker than Feared'

Korea Herald, South Korea: Seoul Citizens Express Concern Over Nuke Test

Rodong Sinmun, North Korea: Unimaginable Punishment if Satellite Intercepted

Korea Central News, North Korea: Obama Misperceives Peaceful Satellite Launch

China Daily, China: Obama Makes North Korean Rocket Launch More Likely

Mainichi Shimbun, Japan: Nuclear-Armed Japan is Not Out of the Question

The Hankyoreh, South Korea: Nuclear Summit Must Resist Nuclear Power Mafia

Yonhap, South Korea: Obama Warns North Launch will Bring Greater Isolation

News, Switzerland: Obama's Best Option for Koreas: Send Envoy to Pyongyang

News, Switzerland: Pyongyang Makes a Play for Direct Ties with Americans

Opera Mundi, Brazil: Can America Secure a North Korean Nuclear 'Reversal'?

Rodong Sinmun, North Korea: Imperialist Sanctions 'Should Be Smashed'

Moskovskiye Novosti, Russia: 'Russia's Place in a Changing World,' By Vladimir Putin

Rodong Sinmun, North Korea: 'U.S. Warmongers' Foolish to Hope to Change North

Jong-A Ilbo, S. Korea: Why the Kim Jong-un Regime is 'Doomed'

Jong-A Ilbo, S. Korea: U.S.,China Must Resist Urge to Meddle after Kim's Death

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany: Secret of America's Counterfeit 'Supernotes'

Korean Central, North Korea: The U.S. 'Should Be Cursed' By All Koreans

Korean Central, North Korea: 'Japanese Militarists' Prepare for Reinvasion of Korea

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On March 23, Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also called Star Wars, which was aimed at nullifying at once Moscows numerical superiority in nuclear warheads.

This effort to free the U.S. from the old nuclear deterrent concept of MAD - or Mutually Assured Destruction - failed to deliver as promised, but ironically, it achieved an even bigger purpose by luring the Soviets into an arms race it couldnt win.

Reagan completed his three-part act in 1987, when he declared during a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Tear down this wall. This was Reagans prophetic double eulogy for communism, as the wall fell in 1989, and the USSR, which disintegrated in 1991.

So we still have a trump card to play against the North.

Posted By Worldmeets.US

Lets do a Reagan: play along with the North in a game that it calls its own, but statistics show it can never win. According to official data, our population is twice as large as that of the North; our GDP 40 times the Norths and GNP per capita close to 20 times larger.

President-elect Park walked part of the way toward this strategy herself, when she recently reminded the North that its former sponsor the Soviet Union collapsed - and possessing nuclear weapons did nothing to prevent it.

All Pyongyang needs may be a little push.

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Posted By Worldmeets.US Feb. 15, 2013, 6:47pm