Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark told Newsmax TV Friday that the United States must "turn the tables" on North Korea and no longer isolate dictator Kim Jong Un's regime to eventually bring unification with the South.
"We've kept the North Koreans isolated for almost 70 years since the Korean War," Clark, 73, told Miranda Khan in an exclusive interview on "Newsmax Now."
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Clark noted the key factor in ending the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991.
"When the Iron Curtain fell in Europe, one reason it fell was because the Eastern Europeans were no longer kept isolated," he explained.
"I was a young Army officer then. I didn't understand all the goings back and forth.
"It looked like, to me, that they were cozying up to these Communists too much," Clark told Khan.
"But the truth is, when you let information come in and higher standards of living — and you let people have more freedom — it definitely undercuts a Communist authoritarian regime.
"Why don't we try the same thing with North Korea?" he asked.
"Why don't we encourage the South and the North to set up a transition plan that will eventually bring the two Koreas together, under our sponsorship?
"This could be done," he told Khan. "It won't happen overnight — but if it does, it would completely get rid of tensions in this area.
"It would make all the people in the area happy, including the Americans.
"We could do this," Clark said.
"I think the time is now. We've ratcheted up the rhetoric, Vice President [Mike] Pence says we're going to tighten up the sanctions further.
"That's the incentive that the North needs to play ball," he explained. "It also shows people in the South that we're serious."
However, Clark had one caution.
"Even if you were successful in telling the North Koreans to give up your nuclear weapons, they're still a rogue state.
"So, what we really want to do is address the larger picture, not just the nuclear picture."
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