Removing Kim Jong Un

An article in today's Wall Street Journal has a curious title, since there is nothing about removing Kim as the problem in North Korea.  There is all kinds of political and economic options available to the world to rid themselves of Kim, but there is no mention of the more obvious option, really removing him.

Certainly in the halls of Beijing there have been discussions about what to do with this leader who does not pay attention to the only trading partner that counts, China.  When I was first researching trade between the two, I seem to remember China being about 60% of trade with the North.  Now, according to this opinion piece, they are 93%.  In other words, just about the country that keeps them going is China.  China could remove him and nobody in the world would even flinch.  Most of the world's leaders would smile.  But, China is not going to do that, because as those same leaders are finding out, China likes having a crazy man leading this nation on a path that allows them to observe the reactions to different types of threats that the United States has to deal with.  It keeps them from being the aggressor while they build up the South China Sea and get ready to strengthen that position.   They like that part.

China could invite the Great Leader to visit and make him a guest forever.  If we really believed their feint drama after the latest bomb test, we could believe they would do something like that.  They know how to do it.

Still, it is curious that in all the discussions about what to do with Kim Jong Un, the obvious solution is not mentioned.  It reminds me of the day when gentleman ran the diplomatic corps of the world and were hesitant about saying anything that was not politically correct.  We want to believe that is still true today.  Maybe they don't mention it because at the beginning of World War I, there were small numbers of people who thought the ruling leadership could be removed, but the consequences of removal were worse than the firing of one bullet.  Some of the world's worst despots were not removed that way.  They lived out their lives in some country that accepted them and gave them sanctuary, but took them out of power.  That is what needs to happen here.