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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Noose tightening on North Korea |
| 2010-07-25 |
| South Korea and the United States are set to start a joint military exercise in the East Sea on Sunday. Washington is preparing to freeze some North Korean assets soon. A U.S.-led multinational naval drill, apparently aimed at stopping North Korea from trafficking weapons of mass destruction, is scheduled for October in the sea off the South Korean port of Busan. North Korea has no one else but itself to blame if it feels the noose tightening around its neck. It was North Korea that put its head in the noose in the first place when it torpedoed a South Korean warship in the South Korean territorial waters in the West Sea in March, killing 46 aboard. When the South Korean-U.S. joint military drill starts in the East Sea, North Korea will have to put itself on high alert, diverting resources for a defense posture. This should be painful to the destitute communist state. The U.S. financial sanctions, now on the drawing board, may prove to be even more damaging. Washington says it will blacklist more North Korean corporations and individuals in two weeks to cut off money flowing into Pyongyang from its exports of weapons of mass destruction and counterfeit products. In October, a multinational naval maneuver will start near Busan under the Proliferation Security Initiative, a global effort to stop the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. All the measures are a follow-up to Wednesday’s conference of the foreign policy and defense chiefs from South Korea and the United States, the first such “two-plus-two” meeting designed to demonstrate the commitment of the United States to South Korean security in the face of a military threat from the North. The two military allies are called on to keep up the pressure until Pyongyang admits to its responsibility for the torpedo attack and vows not to engage in such hostilities again. There is no need for them to rush back to the six-way talks on the denuclearization of North Korea, which Pyongyang recently proposed to reopen -- an apparent move to divert international attention away from the torpedo attack. Juxtaposed with the enhanced U.S. security commitment is South Korea’s recent diplomatic defeat at the U.N. Security Council, where Seoul failed to have Pyongyang condemned for its unprovoked act of hostility. With the dust settling from the debacle, it should be worthwhile for Seoul to review what went wrong and seriously consider what needs to be done if it is to avoid a similar fiasco. At the center of the controversy is not only North Korea but China, which went the extra mile to protect Pyongyang from being censured by the UNSC. |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #3 |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-07-25 19:49 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-07-25 15:31 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-07-25 15:21 |