Andrew Yeo, associate professor, politics, and Joseph Capizzi, director, Institute for Human Ecology, professor, moral theology, were quoted in a Catholic News Service story on just war theory and North Korea.
... "Their rationale is to survive and the best way to do that is through nuclear weapons," he added about the country's leaders. Engagement doesn't work "because usually the assumptions in the past are if you engage with North Korea you start with a freeze and you get North Korea to halt its nuclear tests. Over time you might be able to reward North Korea with economic aid or humanitarian assistance." Until now, though, Yeo said, no one has been able to convince North Korea that "there's a better way forward than being a nuclear pariah state."
Still, said Joseph Capizzi, a professor of moral theology at Catholic University, "we're not at the situation where we've exhausted diplomacy, which seems to be gaining some traction. The Chinese are interested in exerting diplomatic force. North Korea seems to be backing away from its mention of Guam" as a target for one of its nuclear missiles.
"The (just-war) criterion we're thinking through here is last resort," Capizzi said. "Are we at last resort where the only means is military means? No." ...
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