Message from the East

It’s hard to picture a more fitting symbol of capitalism’s triumph over communism than the death of Fidel Castro on Black Friday. Though Cuba remains a dictatorship, its attachment to its revolutionary ideology seems very likely to steadily weaken. That leaves just a single nation devoted to the cause. Unfortunately for the world, it’s North Korea.

Now more than ever, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (as it styles itself) is a sobering and grave reminder of how brutal communism has always been—and how dangerous it remains today and tomorrow.

Officials have warned Donald Trump’s transition team that North Korea’s all-out ballistic missile program is so advanced that it should be treated as the new administration’s No. 1 national security priority.

Naturally, Pyongyang has also taken an interest in President-elect Trump’s policy preferences. In a recent memorandum, the regime leveled the predictable criticism against the U.S. and the sitting president’s adversarial efforts. Boilerplate this may be, but for North Korea watchers, a new and deeper meaning was on clear display. Very unusually, the memorandum was disseminated in English—an evident attempt to telegraph its openness to direct negotiations to the incoming Trump administration.

To mark Fidel Castro’s death, Pyongyang imposed three days of mourning on its beleaguered people, adding insult to decade upon decade of injury. Although neither carrots nor sticks may work as well on North Korea as on Cuba, America’s new administration will face an undeniable opportunity to help ensure that the number of communist regimes blighting the Earth’s surface finally drops to zero.