Stockholm Syndrome

Yikes! Now there’s a brutal comparison to the Sunshine Policy (Via. Japundit)

Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. It also appears to run through Israel and into South Korea.

Let’s start with the latter. Despite the apparently successful nuclear test carried out by the minions of Kim Jong-Il, the government of South Korea seems to be intent on continuing its “Sunshine” policy of engaging the North.

In particular, Seoul appears reluctant to curtail its twin cross-border projects with the Pyongyang regime - a tourist resort in Mount Geumgang and an industrial park in Kaesong - despite the fact that these ventures generate revenues for the dark tyranny of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

So what happens when Sunshine both succeeds and fails?

Any type of engagement policy with a hostile enemy can yield two possible, and contradictory, results. For optimists, a sunshine approach can effectively buy off the adverse party, convincing them that the economic benefits of behaving nicely are far preferable to the costs of persisting in hostile actions. In an ideal world, an accommodating policy persuades the erstwhile enemy to lay down its arms.

But for pessimists, engagement (or appeasement) only emboldens the enemy, reinforces its misbehavior, and reflects weakness

Unfortunately, accommodation can be most destructive when it both succeeds and fails, in that order. In other words, a Sunshine approach might initially appear to be working while, in fact, the hostile party’s cooperative actions mask its ongoing efforts to continue its aggressive conduct. When this happens, the pessimists’ worst nightmare comes true.

Unfortunately, one would be waiting for the next election before any policy change occurs. By then, who know how many other stunts NK will pull.

Update: This article calls South Korea Kim Jong-Il’s ATM. Ouch