If Only the World Were More Coherent

It is certainly true that many people believe that one wrong can right another, that violence can solve violence. But adding one wrong to another only increases it, according to logic.

Russia and China’s announcement that they would veto severe sanctions forced the United States to abandon its plans for total economic war against North Korea. The multi-state organization’s security council approved sanctions that do not include Washington’s proposals. They will limit the amount of petroleum derivatives that Pyongyang can import to 2 million tons; they will ban other countries from buying textile products from North Korea; and they will authorize any state government to freeze the assets of shipping companies whose boats refuse to comply with inspections on the way to North Korea.

This plan is far from what Washington had proposed: a nearly total economic blockade. Such a plan could spark a famine, as we saw in the ‘90s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union left North Korea without aid and 3 million people died of starvation. The United States also sought to freeze the tyrant Kim’s stocks overseas and forbid him to travel outside the country — a proposal which the U.N. notably rejected — as well as to prohibit the exportation of petroleum from the country, and to oblige the 60,000 North Koreans who work abroad and send $2 billion home every year to return to North Korea.

Certainly, we will have to see how China reacts. The Chinese government props up the Kim Jong Un regime and the country shares a 1,420-kilometer border with North Korea, as well as being North Korea’s main provider of energy (although Beijing has not released information about the amount of petroleum and petroleum derivatives that they have exported to the neighboring country since 2013).

But what sense does it make to strip the world of its freedom to interact with North Koreans? If these sanctions were to provoke a famine, it would be the people, not the tyrant, who would suffer. Indeed, Kim would see his power grow as his people grew more and more powerless and isolated from the outside world. Surprisingly, no one believes that these sanctions would convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear missile program. Steve Bannon, former advisor to Donald Trump and leader of the far-right branch of the Republican Party, has said that it was an impossible idea.

What the plan has accomplished is an increase in nationalistic, populist, and threatening rhetoric: North Korean ambassador Tae Song Han has declared that “The forthcoming measures … will make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in its history.”

On the other hand, evil should be fought with good, as is logical and coherent. A defense of life must first seek to support and sustain it. Consuelo Cordoba lost her face after her husband attacked her with acid and fell into a deep depression, deciding to commit suicide. “When my daughter had to have surgery … she didn’t come to me for help. She shut me out of her life. So I said to myself, ‘Why live if my life matters to no-one?’” she explained. She then scheduled her own euthanasia for the following September. But during Pope Francis’s recent visit to Colombia, he met with Consuelo, who embraced him and told him everything. She then told him, “No injections … I will live until God takes my life away from me … Father, I love you so much, thank you for saving my life.”