Alrighty then...
Let's test the proposition that North Korea is NOT a "failed state", by suspending all our "food aid" -- which (obviously) a "successful state" would not need.
It might also be helpful to hold "7-Party Talks" -- with the "7th Party" consisting of representatives of a free and democratic FUTURE government of North Korea. Of course, that meeting would be held as scheduled -- even if tantrum-prone Pyongyang chose to "boycott" the meeting.
You know what? Chinese may hate it as much as N. Koreans.
Yes, I think the Chinese and maybe the South Koreans would be upset about a North Korean government-in-exile's attendance:
Defectors in Seoul Skeptical of NK Exile Government
Support From South Korea Needed for Establishment
By Reuben Staines, Park Song-wu
Staff ReportersNorth Korean defectors residing in South Korea on Wednesday expressed skepticism over an attempt to establish a North Korean government-in-exile in Japan to oppose Kim Jong-il's communist regime.
The heads of six associations of North Korean defectors reportedly agreed to set up a provisional government by March next year during a meeting in Tokyo Nov. 19-20.
But several prominent defectors in Seoul told The Korea Times that while they sympathize with any bid to democratize North Korea, they have reservations about the proposed government's political motives, support-base and chances of bringing about real change.
The movement, a coalition of defector groups in Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, consists mostly of former Pyongyang officials who fled the North more than three decades ago and have little contact with younger North Korean exiles, one defector said on condition of anonymity.
He recently helped organize a meeting between the members of an involved group in Japan and Hwang Jang-yop, the highest-ranked Pyongyang official to defect to the South, but said Hwang declined their offer to take the presidency of the government-in-exile.
``Although Hwang doesn't oppose this kind of attempt to set up a government-in-exile, he thinks South Korea should be the strategic base to promote democracy in North Korea,'' said the defector, who has been involved in promoting democracy in the North since settling in Seoul in 1999.
The 81-year-old Hwang, formerly secretary of the powerful Workers' Party in North Korea and the architect of the regime's ``Juche" doctrine of self-reliance, formed a North Korea democracy alliance in March last year in Seoul. He defected to South Korea in 1997.
Another defector also doubted whether the Japan-based government-in-exile would be able to unite North Korean defectors to raise their voices against Pyongyang's authoritarian leadership.
``If they fail to comprise all defectors in South Korea, including Hwang Jang-yop and other former diplomats or high-ranking officials, the movement in Japan will not be successful,'' he predicted.
Leaders in the movement include Park Gab-dong, standing committee chairman of the Japan-based National Salvation Front for Democratic Reunification of Korea, an 85-year-old former North Korean official who fled Pyongyang in 1957.
``Basically they are too old and don't have good channels with defectors who have recently fled North Korea and settled in South Korea,'' said the defector, who now works as a reporter in Seoul.
``We also can't understand what their ultimate goal is at the moment,'' he said.
However, Kim Sang-hun, a human rights worker who worked for the United Nations from 1975 to 1994, hopes the movement will produce a cohesive organization through which defectors can lobby for change in North Korea.
``There have been several attempts in the past which have not succeeded but I hope this latest effort can bring good results,'' he said.
Kim also believed there are no legal barriers to establishing the government-in-exile in Japan, although North Korea has been acknowledged as a legitimate state by international bodies such as the U.N.
He cited activities by Cubans living in the United States as a precedent. ``Legally there is no problem with setting up a government-in-exile in a foreign country,'' he said.