David Frum on North Korea

In his article "Mutually Assured Disruption", David Frum (former speechwriter for George W. Bush) wrote that the North Korean atom bomb test signals the failure of diplomacy to rein in North Korea's ambitions:

It is, alas, an iron law of modern diplomacy that the failure of any diplomatic process only proves the need for more of the process that has just failed.

I guess it's bad science to argue that correlation implies causality, but North Korea refrained from going nuclear during the years in which diplomacy was attempted (the Clinton years). On the other hand, we have had no meaningful diplomacy with North Korea for the last 6 years, and North Korea went nuclear. So how does this show that diplomacy can't work?

What is Frum's approach to dealing with North Korea? Among other suggestions, Frum offers this bullet:

• Encourage Japan to renounce the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and create its own nuclear deterrent.

He also recommends cutting off all humanitarian aid for North Korea, and using sanctions to precipitate a humanitarian disaster.

Maybe I'm not giving his ideas a fair chance, but it seems to me that he is INSANE. Completely, stark-raving mad. The reason we care at all about North Korea going nuclear is that (1) It might lead to an arms race in the region, which could lead to conventional or nuclear war, and (2) Cash-strapped North Korea might be tempted to make money by selling their nuclear technology to unsavory groups such as Al Qaeda. What does Frum's plan do, other than make these two most horrible consequences much more likely?

I think conservatives have gone over the edge. They can't remember from one day to the next whether their goal is to protect the world, or to blow it up.