Moreover, Washington should indicate to Beijing that the United States does not intend to allow nonproliferation policy to have the same effect as gun control in America—ensuring that only the bad guys are armed. Should the North continue with its nuclear program, America would reconsider its opposition to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by South Korea and Japan. Proliferation in Northeast Asia might be a nightmare, but if so, it will be a nightmare shared by all, including the PRC.

Then the United States should turn its attention elsewhere.

Washington’s policy towards the DPRK has failed. Whether nonproliferation ever had a chance of success in Northeast Asia is unclear. But North Korea is a nuclear power and is unlikely to voluntarily surrender that status.

Rather than continue a fruitless campaign to denuclearize the North, the United States should hand off the problem to those nations with the most at stake in a peaceful and stable North Korea. Someone else should take the lead in resolving Northeast Asia’s problems.