Duncan Currie, an editorial assistant with the U.S. neoconservative mouthpiece The Weekly Standard, offered the suggestion in a Monday column entitled, "Kim Jong Honecker? Our Strategy for Dislodging the North Korean Tyrant Should Recall East Germany."

Currie predicted that should the heavily militarized Sino-North Korean border open up, the ensuing rush of defectors would lead to the inevitable collapse of the North Korean regime, in an echo of the 1989 mass defections of East Germans that resulted in the demolition of the Berlin Wall. Kim Jong-il would suffer a similar fate to hardline East German Communist Party secretary general Erich Honecker, who was ousted.

Currie said the policy was preferable to what he called U.S. President George W. Bush's failed North Korea policy, as well as to sanctions on the Stalinist country, which Pyongyang would take as a declaration of war and which would be poorly received by South Korea and China.

The columnist said China held the key to such a solution. To persuade Beijing, it could be included in the G-8 (the G-7 plus Russia) and the U.S. could play the "Taiwan card." With China in the G-8, the U.S. could exert pressure on it to open its border, while Washington could warn Beijing that if North Korea has nuclear weapons so will Taiwan.

Currie said China should also be given financial incentives. He called on the Washington to help China with the massive potential influx of North Korean refugees and use the US$20 million in defector support made available annually by the North Korean Human Rights Act.

(englishnews@chosun.com )