Financial Times Editorial - Pyongyang's act of irresponsibility
Financial Times Editorial - Pyongyang's act of irresponsibility
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: October 10 2006 03:00 | Last updated: October 10 2006 03:00
North Korea's fateful decision to test a nuclear bomb makes it the ninth and least welcome of the nations believed to possess such weapons. If verified, the test announced in triumph by Pyongyang presents a grave threat to global security that should not - and will not - go unanswered.
The risks are clear. Japan, nervous about North Korean missiles capable of hitting Japanese soil, will be tempted to develop its own nuclear arsenal, a move that would abruptly end two generations of Japanese pacifism and stoke an east Asian arms race. Aspiring nuclear powers, including Iran, will be emboldened by the defiant stance of Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader.
The wobbly international structures designed to limit proliferation of military nuclear technologies will be further weakened; if a regime as irresponsible and economically feeble as Mr Kim's can get away with developing nuclear bombs under the noses of the Americans and the Chinese, then what is to stop others doing the same?
War is unlikely because the US has little stomach for it. Further economic sanctions, however, may do more harm to the malnourished North Korean people than to Mr Kim. Nor do sanctions have a chance of making an impact without the active participation of China, North Korea's most important trade partner and oil supplier.
China is the key to resolving this nuclear crisis, and it is time for Beijing to put serious pressure on the North Korean regime, even if that means undermining Mr Kim and setting the two Koreas on the path to reunification. For too long, China has baulked at "destabilising" North Korea for fear of an exodus of Koreans seeking refuge in China and the eventual creation of a united Korea allied to the US.
Chinese leaders must now accept that Mr Kim's regime, especially when armed with nuclear weapons, is itself unstable, as well as being a destabilising force in the region. South Korea, meanwhile, is already moving out of the US orbit into the embrace of an economically powerful China. It will be an expensive and tumultuous time, but if the dysfunctional North Korean government collapses peacefully a de facto takeover of the north by the developed south will be as inevitable as west Germany's absorption of the east in 1990.
It would be hard for a Communist regime such as China's to countenance the demise of one of its few surviving ideological allies, particularly one for which it spilled blood in a war against the west. But the government of a united Korea might see the sense in abandoning the expense and the awesome responsibility of nuclear weapons, just as South Africa and Ukraine did after their own revolutionary upheavals at the end of the cold war.
The alternative is the status quo - a defiant North Korea developing a nuclear arsenal and shrugging off piecemeal economic sanctions - and that is unacceptable to all.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: October 10 2006 03:00 | Last updated: October 10 2006 03:00
North Korea's fateful decision to test a nuclear bomb makes it the ninth and least welcome of the nations believed to possess such weapons. If verified, the test announced in triumph by Pyongyang presents a grave threat to global security that should not - and will not - go unanswered.
The risks are clear. Japan, nervous about North Korean missiles capable of hitting Japanese soil, will be tempted to develop its own nuclear arsenal, a move that would abruptly end two generations of Japanese pacifism and stoke an east Asian arms race. Aspiring nuclear powers, including Iran, will be emboldened by the defiant stance of Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader.
The wobbly international structures designed to limit proliferation of military nuclear technologies will be further weakened; if a regime as irresponsible and economically feeble as Mr Kim's can get away with developing nuclear bombs under the noses of the Americans and the Chinese, then what is to stop others doing the same?
War is unlikely because the US has little stomach for it. Further economic sanctions, however, may do more harm to the malnourished North Korean people than to Mr Kim. Nor do sanctions have a chance of making an impact without the active participation of China, North Korea's most important trade partner and oil supplier.
China is the key to resolving this nuclear crisis, and it is time for Beijing to put serious pressure on the North Korean regime, even if that means undermining Mr Kim and setting the two Koreas on the path to reunification. For too long, China has baulked at "destabilising" North Korea for fear of an exodus of Koreans seeking refuge in China and the eventual creation of a united Korea allied to the US.
Chinese leaders must now accept that Mr Kim's regime, especially when armed with nuclear weapons, is itself unstable, as well as being a destabilising force in the region. South Korea, meanwhile, is already moving out of the US orbit into the embrace of an economically powerful China. It will be an expensive and tumultuous time, but if the dysfunctional North Korean government collapses peacefully a de facto takeover of the north by the developed south will be as inevitable as west Germany's absorption of the east in 1990.
It would be hard for a Communist regime such as China's to countenance the demise of one of its few surviving ideological allies, particularly one for which it spilled blood in a war against the west. But the government of a united Korea might see the sense in abandoning the expense and the awesome responsibility of nuclear weapons, just as South Africa and Ukraine did after their own revolutionary upheavals at the end of the cold war.
The alternative is the status quo - a defiant North Korea developing a nuclear arsenal and shrugging off piecemeal economic sanctions - and that is unacceptable to all.
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 7:38 AM
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