I haven’t given this idea thought before. Very interesting. (Hat tip: New Mongols)

ULAAN BAATAR, Mongolia — While the world powers grapple with how to check North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, Mongolia has quietly engaged the country and is pressing it to undertake reforms in a more direct manner.

The primary tool to woo Pyongyang is Mongolia’s own successful transition from a Stalinist state to a free-market democracy.

Once allies within the Soviet bloc, North Korea and Mongolia chose very different tacks after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. While North Korea’s continuing Stalinism has brought it to the brink of collapse, Mongolia undertook a series of political and economic reforms that revitalized the country.

“I really believe that Mongolia’s experience is very much transferable to North Korea, and we can become a kind of transition consultant to them,” Tsakhiagiyn Elbegdorj, Mongolia’s prime minister, said in a recent interview. The North Koreans “listen to us because we’re not Western people trying to teach them Äthe WesternÅ way of life. We are like them, and through workshops and meetings we are simply sharing our knowledge, our experience with them.”

Pamela Slutz, the US ambassador in Ulaan Baatar, said there is evidence that the effort is bearing fruit, partly because “the two countries share extensive cultural, ethnic, and diplomatic ties” and North Korea sees Mongolia as non-threatening.

“Mongolia supports our call for a denuclearized Korean peninsula, and we consult very closely with them to make sure what they are doing doesn’t undermine US efforts,” Slutz said.

Over the past two years, Mongolia and North Korea have exchanged several high-level delegations, and in August North Korea reopened its embassy in Ulaan Baatar five years after it closed because of what Pyongyang termed financial reasons.

But most of the cooperation is being channeled through “back-door diplomacy,” said Baabar, an adviser to Elbegdorj and a founder of the Northeast Asia Association, an organization committed to improving Mongolia’s ties with North Korea. Baabar, who like many Mongolians uses only one name, says he has visited North Korea more than 30 times in the past few years.

“Officially, the North Koreans say they have no interest, but unofficially there is great curiosity at how our step-by-step movement to the market system worked,” he said. “They ask us a lot of questions and want to find ways to make money. Now, there is a new black market in Pyongyang ÄandÅ that means at least they’re learning how a market works.”

As the article notes, there are certainly benefits for Mongolia to aid in U.S. efforts to rid North Korea of its nukes. The first and most obvious would be to maintain regional security, something very important for a developing democracy such as Mongolia. The other is to open up greater markets for trade, which is in itself a liberalizing force for both countries.

Of course, Mongolia’s influence would be limited at best, especially when making distinction between it and the economic powerhouse that is China. In this sense, the major pitfall for American foreign policy toward North Korea is that it must rely on regional powers to pressure the regime given that it has little leverage itself. This is evident in the six-party talks underway, which have been largely ineffective due to undemocratic China’s hamstringing and stalling to use its massive leverage. In reality, China is in no hurry to curtail Kim because a nuclear North Korea is not necessarily bad for China, but very dangerous for its competitors in the west. That’s why the United States needs to find alternative routes of influence, and Mongolia may just be a shining example of how to circumvent, even in small ways, an otherwise useless diplomatic charade.