This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
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Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.
Talk of war in Korea hits close to home in the South Sound.
In the event of hostilities, American military contingency plans call for deploying possibly thousands of Fort Lewis soldiers – our neighbors – to the Korean Peninsula.
That makes the latest round of missile-rattling by North Korea doubly disturbing. Kim Jong Il’s Stalinist regime in Pyongyang has threatened war against South Korea many times in the past; threatening the democratic south is its default foreign policy. Lately, though, its threats have taken on an increasingly nuclear flavor.
The dictatorship has long been manipulating the world with its on-again, off-again nuclear weapons program.
Eight times since 1994, it has either revved up its nuclear efforts or claimed to shut them down in exchange for rewards, concessions or recognition.
Official recognition and respect were among the enticements the Bush administration employed to coax North Korea into the “six party talks” – negotiations with China, Russia, the United States, Japan and South Korea that were supposed to settle the nuclear issue.
Last month, though, the Pyongyang regime ditched the talks, began firing missiles over its neighbors’ bows and turned on its plutonium factories again. It’s been baiting the U.N. Security Council, and it treats every U.N. move toward sanctions as a provocation that warrants another round of nuclear threats.
This would be a lot like the past episodes of bellicose posturing except that North Korea is getting closer to putting actual nuclear warheads on its missiles. It conducted an underground nuclear test Monday and has since been launching more missiles to underscore the point.
The United States can’t do much about this lunacy. Barack Obama may have been under the impression he could tame Kim Jong Il by being pleasant to him, but the president must know better by now.
Both the Bush and Clinton administration tried at various times to solve the North Korea problem with diplomacy; neither succeeded. Make nice with Kim Jong Il, and he pursues nukes. Get tough with Kim Jong Il, and he pursues nukes.
The solution is all about China. China is North Korea’s patron and mainstay. According to South Korean analysts, it provides 90 percent of North Korea’s oil, 45 percent of its food and accounts for 73 percent of its trade.
In other words, China could bring the dictatorship to its knees just by shutting off the spigot for a few weeks.
Only recently – in response to Pyongyang’s latest stunts – have the Chinese begun to sound serious about grounding its ugly child. China seems increasingly nervous that North Korea’s threats could trigger nuclear arms production in Japan and South Korea, making the neighborhood a whole lot more dangerous.
The Chinese are undoubtedly leaning on Kim Jong Il’s people behind closed doors. Whatever they’re saying, let’s hope it’s forceful enough to end the threat of a conflict that could make the first Korean War look like child’s play.
