By Carl Baker
The instinctive reaction to the announcement by North Korea that it plans to launch a satellite next month was to denounce it as a violation of the “Leap Day deal.” That arrangement involved “simultaneous unilateral announcements” offering nutritional assistance from the United States while North Korea promised to place a moratorium on its nuclear program, including long-range missile launches.
We all know what will happen next. The U.S. demands additional sanctions, North Korea withdraws from its part of the bargain, and tensions increase. Let me suggest a way to avoid another rerun: rather than insisting that the launch violates the long-range missile launch moratorium, Washington should test the North Korean claim that it’s launching a satellite and not a missile by accepting Pyongyang’s offer to allow experts and journalists to observe the launch.
Read the full story at The Diplomat