Malaysia Plays Game with N Korea

We haven't seen a good game of tennis between two international participants in a long time, but this one between North Korea and Malaysia is pretty good.  That is because Malaysia knows how to play with the North and won't put up with their one-sided attempts at extortion.  The North says no citizens of Malaysia can leave the country, so the return volley is that no North Koreans can leave Malaysia - not that there are very many there anyway- setting a principle that the North needs to see for what it is.  Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world where North Korea has an embassy.  Maybe not for much longer.

Too many countries try to negotiate their way out of disagreements with North Korea.  They give the most money or recognition that makes them feel better about themselves.  Neither of those are good things.  It encourages bad behavior.  A better approach is to tag China first and tell them to get the North under control.  They don't want to do it and have worked around sanctions at every turn.  That part is a joke.  But we need to see that China encourages this type of behavior and allows the North to create international incidents so it can observe and say "it wasn't me" over and over., while they continue to trade with the North and feed them.  The U.S has wised up to this nonsense and China is starting to get the message, even though they are still not doing anything to get the North under control - at least not yet.  The U.S is putting THAAD into the South to counter these missiles flying over Japan and the South.

Turning loose VX nerve agent at a public airport was a stupid idea that was done for effect.  It was the same kind of effect that was done with anti-aircraft guns and artillery to execute people in the North.  When they are in their own country, nobody cares what they do.