Completely agree with this observation from a recent NYT op-ed on North Korea:

"Pursuing diplomacy with North Korea won’t be universally popular. The regime is far from admirable. It has, among other things, advanced its military capabilities at the expense of its starving and impoverished population."

In fact, it's actually much worse than that and I don't know why the writer is holding back. The regime spends a trillion dollars a year on its military--which it euphemistically calls "defense." To support its insane military spending, the regime has put its people so far into debt that it has to raise an additional trillion dollars a year through taxes and further borrowing just to service the ever-ballooning debt. And even as it continues to fatten its gargantuan military, almost 40 million of its own people live below the poverty line!

I totally agree, how do you even begin to pursue diplomacy with a regime as obviously insane and destructive to its own people as that one?

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