Crisis in North Korea: Opportunity for Democracy

John R. Bolton, American Enterprise Institute | October 2, 2008

The possible regime crisis in N. Korea poses a threat of loose nukes, floods of refugees, and long-term economic upheaval, but is also a great chance to reunite the Peninsula under democratic rule. ++ The US-South Korean Forces may need to intervene to keep WMDs out of the wrong hands. ++ S. Korea fears an economic situation like that after the Berlin Wall, but the longer unification is delayed, the harder reunification will be. ++ The short-term humanitarian costs could be quickly regained with a market-oriented, international economy.