Category: Specials

“How South Korea is Raising the Risk of War Menacing North Korea”

Gregory Elich on

That North Korea would feel threatened is not surprising. Its economy is crippled by the imposition of draconian Western sanctions, and the annual South Korean-U.S. military exercises are intended to intimidate. Furthermore, the rhetoric from Washington has been unremittingly hostile, and now with a more conservative government, so is South Korea’s.

Nor is North Korea unaware of the fact that in February 2003, President Bush told Chinese President Jiang Zemin that if the nuclear issue could not be solved diplomatically, he would “have to consider a military strike against North Korea.”

Is North Korea a Convenient Scapegoat for America’s Northeast Asia Strategy?

on

… all three major military drills took place directly under America’s “(both peacetime and wartime) operational control.” South Korean President Lee Myungbak, like all of his predecessors, does not have any legal, military and political power or authority to order or control over his own nation’s military whatsoever.

This extremely dependent (so many call it “puppet”) system is known seemingly the only case in the world in which a sovereign nation has let other country’s foreign (local) military commander has the host nation’s military (army, navy and air) operational control.

US, Insidious Harm to Korean Peninsula

Li Hongmei on

In the face of a tinderbox, to trigger or to defuse the impending danger is not a choice of no consequence but a wisdom defining life or death. The U.S., as a close ally to South Korea, should be highly conscious of the destruction that the regular war games could bring about, rather than obstinately supporting the saber-rattling exercises while being heedless of its ally’s danger and safety. It is a crystal clear point that if the disaster simmering on the Korean Peninsula could put China into the knee-deep water, there must be somebody else who would get drowned.

East Asia Calls for Peace

By Li Wei (China Daily) on

China and Japan should tread with utmost caution and take appropriate steps to resolve the dispute over Diaoyu Islands Relations between China and Japan have deteriorated since two Japan Coast Guard vessels collided with a…

Can Washington and Seoul Try Dealing With Pyongyang for a Change?

Leon V. Sigal on

A summit meeting between Obama and Kim Jong Il, establishment of full diplomatic relations, and much deeper economic engagement are likely to be needed for Pyongyang to dismantle its reactor and reprocessing plant and allow its enrichment and reprocessing to be verifiably ended.

Korean Borders Vital to China’s Own Security

Li Xiguang on

China should also send a clear message to the US and Japan not to encourage South Korea to take any aggressive actions against the North. China should make it crystal clear that anyone who uses the Yeonpyeong incident as an excuse for further provocative actions is playing with fire.

World markets fall following Korean crisis

on

The crisis in the Korean Peninsular are badly affecting markets – not only in Asia, but in other parts of the world. According to China Daily, Seoul’s Kospi index shed 0.15 percent, or 2.96 points,…