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Korea — Dynamism, drama, disconnect

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By John Metzler
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, October 10, 2006

UNITED NATIONS — It’s been an extraordinary week for Korean-related news. The East Asian country which rightly labels itself as Dynamic Korea has witnessed some dramatic events and some incredible political disconnect. Super successful South Korea has seen its Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon elected as the new UN Secretary General. In the meantime, neo-Stalinist North Korea has shot itself into the headlines by announcing that it’s planning a nuclear test, and then for bad measure carried one out! Now governments from Seoul to Tokyo and Washington are all trying to get on the same page in response to Pyongyang’s rogue regime.

First, bravo for Minister Ban who bested some very stiff and diverse competition from fellow Asian contenders but now has gotten the final blessing from the Security Council. Ban’s campaign for the top slot to replace outgoing Secretary General Kofi Annan, was not noted for its sound bites but for a persistent diligence which characterizes this affable career diplomat. To think that South Korea, a country which was only admitted into the UN’s membership in 1991 after years of political frustration and cold war face-offs now will see its Foreign Minister as Secretary General is quite simply an extraordinary achievement. That a South Korean, was not vetoed by Russia or People’s China for the post is an amazing story in itself which will be explained in a later column.

Naturally North Korea spoiled the moment. The timing was more than curious. Via a blustery four page statement, Pyongyang made the nuclear test announcement on October 3rd a South Korean holiday; National Founding Day. Then the actual nuclear test coincided with Ban’s election on October 9th Much as Pyongyang’s seven missile tests were carried out on the 4th of July, Kim Jong-il’s latest shot across the bow begs for attention. Anybody who sees this as a merely coincidence believes in fairy tales.

That the ironically titled Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) favors neutrons over nutrition for its people is less the news than this clear provocation to all East Asia. Russia is nervous, South Korea is far more nervous than its current government shows, and People’s China repeats the old mantra to “be calm.” The United States rightly fears the geo-political implications of North Korea’s nuclear proliferation, but remains at loggerheads with regional powers as how to realistically reverse it.

Japan has been thrust to the fore. Tokyo’s new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has reacted with political alacrity in trying to mend relations with regional capitals, especially Seoul and Beijing, while at the same time supporting Washington’s tough line on the North Korean communists. The timing is auspicious, given that Japan is the President of the UN Security Council for October, a role which puts Tokyo in a unique position to effect a more pro-active role in the region.

Acting on the initiative of Japan, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a clear rebuke but not a formal resolution regarding North Korea’s nuke test! The Council expressed its “deep concern” over the planned action but did not specify any specific punitive actions on Pyongyang. "It's good that the council has come up with a very clear, strongly worded message warning against a nuclear test," Japan’s Ambassador Kenzo Oshima stressed. Despite near universal global condemnation, Kim Jong-il could care less.

Naturally there’s China and the mercurial role played by the People’s Republic towards its old comrade but growing unease with North Korea. Clearly China holds the balance of power in this equation. While Beijing still favors the Six Party talks on nuclear North Korea, a multilateral formula where both Korean governments South and North, negotiate with China, Japan, Russia and the USA, towards a settlement, there’s much more Beijing can do to defuse this issue.

A Financial Times of London editorial says it best, “If China wants to be accepted as a world power, it is time that it assumed the responsibilities of a regional power. There is no more room for appeasement of Kim Jong-il. Beijing supplies North Korea with most of its food and fuel. While clearly to suspend those flows would be, as it were, to press the nuclear button, surely it can use that leverage to urge more than restraint.”

President Roh Moo Hyun’s government in Seoul, including Ban Ki-moon, must be aware that its rose-colored engagement policies with Pyongyang, while trying to calm fears and offer humanitarian help to fellow Koreans on the divided peninsula, have actually sustained Kim Jong-il’s regime, and have brought a level of uncertainty and disharmony to relations with Washington.

Ironically now as the Korean peninsula is thrust into the global strategic limelight, a South Korean will soon be the world’s chief political mediator.

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.