The North Korea Deal: Bribing, Diplomacy Work with Atheists

What's the difference between Iraq and North Korea? God.

The nuclear deal with Kim Jong-il, which is nothing more and nothing less than an economic bribe, parses a central difference that separates the triptych which is the Axis of Evil. Iraq and Iran are states driven by sectarianism, while North Korea may not be free from the hand of ideology or of crazed leadership, but it is free from the hand of the God.

Indeed, "In 2002, Kim Jong-il declared that 'money should be capable of measuring the worth of all commodities.'" By that calculus, the ability to make nuclear weapons is a commodity that can (and probably should) be monetized. Which is what happened yesterday, to the tune of about $250 million in "aid." In fact, in a curious irony, the absence of nuclear weapons turned out to be more valuable to the government than its presence.

Personally, I think the North Koreans could have done better. (Good thing they didn't have Howie Mandel hosting the conference, or Goldman Sachs representing them). After all, the war in Iraq costs around $255 million a day, which means they're getting paid less than a twenty-four hour investment in that catastrophe to mothball their lovingly constructed main nuclear reactor, unwind their atomic energy program, and let UN inspectors poke around.

Think back to the handwringing of just four months ago when North Korea exploded its first nuclear weapon, and all the disaster scenarios that were trotted out. To consider that we're able to eliminate that risk for not much more than a couple of pricey Manhattan apartments suggests one of the biggest bargains in international affairs in memory.

The point, though, is that North Koreans were amenable to being bought off because they don't have an apocalyptic view of history. They invested in their nuclear program for precisely this end, not to bring about the end of the world in fusion of glory. If the Shias and Sunnis leaders (as opposed to most of their people) were similarly freed of theology, we could sit them down, open our big-stick checkbook like we did with North Korea, and start haggling. We were able to bring China into the world economic community - perhaps to our eventual discomfort - the same way.

Who would have thought that Kim Jong-il would turn out to be the most reasonable loon in the Evil Axis? Actually, anyone who recognized that you can talk to people with whom you have something to negotiate, short of conversion. In Iraq we are dealing with fundamentalists who see only one way to succeed, and that isn't with the cars and flat screen TVs and iPods that come with normalized relations. Which puts George Bush and Rudy Giuliani in exactly the same place: being on the wrong side of unyielding, unwavering, and unforgiving faith.