Bush’s Taepodong’d Problem

With all the talk about Iran and Iraq on the international stage, President Bush might have a bigger problem from the “pygmy” he so despises.

The Bush Administration has screwed up relations with North Korea yet again, as recent talk of impending sanctions have created a bitter atmosphere between Washington and Pyongyang. Yes, we have seen this already many times in the past and it’s simply indicative of the administration’s unskilled diplomacy and oblivious attitude toward Kim Jong-Il and his “failed” missiles.

A thought:

Some high in the Bush administration have argued that dangerous actions by North Korea are likely whether or not the United States undertakes new sanctions against Pyongyang. Perhaps so, but they are much more likely if, instead of carrot-and-stick negotiations, the administration withdraws all previous carrots and multiplies the sticks. In this case a U.S. administration will have to share the blame with North Korea if a new international crisis erupts.

Kim’s 4th of July launches were a warning to the international community, a foreshadow of the potential danger a nuclear Korean Peninsula could pose to stability in East Asia. The US had their chance, but instead the nation with the capability and position to engage the North chose instead to ignore the warning signals. Sanctions surely will do little to deter Kim Jong-Il; in fact, he’ll probably be encouraged by such aggressively legitimizing moves from the west. A successful nuclear test by North Korea could destabilize not only the region, but international politics as well. Before we argue that Al-Qaeda and Iranian militarism pose a greater threat to the United States, let’s remember that North Korea actually possesses the nuclear weapons we fear, and the capability to deliever the deadly payload to many large urban areas in Asia. In a day and age where nuclear non-proliferation is a top priority, the last thing the world needs is budding nuclear programs sprouting up in Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo.

North Korea was Bush’s chance to display some international credibility and charity through political rather than physical engagement. However, it looks like rock-headed decision making continues to slop out of the Pentagon, where tempers and impatience has taken precedent over rational thought and intellectual debate.

 

Yasukuni: Bringing Asians Together Since 1945

Most scholars of East Asian international relations understands the delicate historically controversial Yasukuni shrine in Japan. For those of you who don’t know, read this.

But an interesting thought from Daniel Widome of The New Republic:

Strangely, however, it (Yasukuni Shrine) also serves each country’s interests. China, where anti-Japanese sentiment is naturally abundant, is the clearest example. Official displays of outrage help legitimize the ruling Communist Party, whose legacy rests on its resistance to Japanese invaders in the 1930s and 1940s. But other countries follow a similar pattern. Hatred of Japan is one of the few things that unite North and South Korea in mutual nationalist fury. Both countries resent Japan’s claim on the Dokdo Islands–or the Takeshima Islands, to the Japanese. Japan annexed the islands–along with the rest of Korea–in the early twentieth century, but it refused to relinquish its claim on them after it was expelled from Korea after the Pacific War. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has indicated that he will not hold a summit with any Japanese prime minister that visits Yasukuni.

Yasukuni Shrine has been known as a very polarizing historical legacy that continues to plague East Asian relations, the bad penny that always seems to turn up. I agree it’s a historically sensitive issue, but a historical one nonetheless. All this cyclical animosity reminds me of a Dave Chappelle quote from a skit that mocked American pig-headedness: “Gentlemen, if you have hate in your hearts, let it out!”