NO SANCTIONS ON PEOPLE OF NORTH KOREA, INSTEAD INVITE KIM TO WALK AROUND U.S.

Pres. Obama has urged strict sanctions against North Korea for its missile tests and its nuclear bomb production.

The BBC reports:

"Mr Obama said that he and his South Korean counterpart had agreed that a new UN resolution designed to halt North Korea's nuclear ambitions should be fully enforced.

"And he pledged to end a cycle of letting North Korea create a crisis in order to be rewarded with concessions from the international community."

But North Korea is a very poor county. Its people live in abject poverty, barely eking out existence. It needs food and charitable donations to keep its population from starving in the harsh Korean winter. So sanctions?

All sanctions do is to punish the people. As if punishing the population is going to make North Korean leaders change their policies.

No, the best thing Obama could do is to invite the North Korean leaders especially Kim Jong-il to the United States for an extended walk-around, going anywhere he pleases. I take this idea from Dana Milbank (?) or someone else at The Washington Post. At this point, I forget who was the source of this brilliant idea.

Let Kim discover American culture, freedom of speech, and freedom to go anywhere he wants. Then perhaps Obama could have a serious and productive dialogue with North Korea on ending its juvenile reliance on nuclear weapons.