TEASING KIM JONG IL

North Korea’s president soon will have to scrounge the black market to get toys such as the iPod that complement his luxurious lifestyle. That’s the main consequence of the reportedly latest Bush administration plan for coping with what is probably the most imminent threat of expanding nuclear weapons proliferation.

The Associated Press learned of the plan and called it “Washington’s first-ever attempt to use trade penalties as a way of personally aggravating a foreign leader.” The AP said that the planned penalties target items believed to be favorites of President Kim Jong Il or gifts from roughly 600 loyalist families who support the communist government.

Items to be banned are said to include Rolex watches, expensive cars, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, cognac, cigarettes, artwork, musical instruments and sports equipment including personal watercraft such as Jet Skis.

Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez not only confirmed the AP’s disclosure but tried to justify it. He issued a statement that said: “While North Korea’s people starve and suffer, there is no excuse for the regime to be splurging on cognac and cigars. We will ban the export of these and other luxury goods that are purchased for no other reason than to benefit North Korea’s governing elite.” He said the items to be blocked had been “carefully considered and carefully targeted.”

Aside from inflicting minor irritation on President Kim and his close supporters, this new economic sanction would have no prospect of modifying his behavior or North Korea’s nuclear weapons policies. In fact, the effects can only be negative.

In no way can they affect Pyongyang’s ongoing program of producing nuclear weapons and missiles to carry them, as what it calls a deterrent to the threat of a U.S. attack and for suspected and feared sale to other countries.

American options have always included military strikes and negotiations. Military action seems out of the question, if only because U.S. forces are already stretched thin by two long, costly, unfinished wars, and also because it could set off a major regional war involving South Korea, Japan, and perhaps even China. That leaves diplomacy, which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been pursuing with determination if limited success.

Secretary Rice could hardly have approved of new sanctions calculated merely to annoy her prospective negotiating partner. She should step in and ask President Bush to tell the Commerce Department to call off this plan.