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Rice Heads To Asia
Condi pushes Asian leaders to get tough
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flies to Asia today for meetings with the leaders of Japan, China and South Korea. The stated purpose of her mission is to review the response to North Korea's nuclear test on October 9th: However, Dr Rice will be pressing her counterparts to ensure that the tough wording of the UN Security Council resolution they signed up for is followed through.
Her visit comes as rumours build surrounding a potential second test by the hermit kingdom, which has reacted angrily to the resolution. North Korea described the sanctions as tantamount to a declaration of war: It has previously warned that anything from inspections (which the sanctions demand) to blockades of its ports would be treated as such, which would merit a "deadly response" from the state's 1.1m strong army.
This makes Dr Rice's mission especially sensitive. China has already stated it will not go beyond inspections of cargo moving from North Korea, and it is thought to have started inspecting lorries moving across its land border with the state already. It fears a collapse of the Kim Jong-Il regime, which could provoke a huge influx of refugees across the border. Moreover, it is sworn to defend the Stalinist state militarily. China will have made it clear to the North Korean leadership that this treaty does not encompass a response to North Korean aggression, but by testing the bomb in defiance of Beijing in the first place, the North Koreans have demonstrated that it is willing to stretch China's friendship and protection to breaking point.
South Korea, mindful of the massed ranks of North Korean artillery and missiles primed and aimed at its populous and prosperous capital Seoul, is also expected to interpret the sanctions as loosely as possible. Like China, it has strong cause to be disappointed with this month's events, as it has spent a decade pursuing a "sunshine policy" against the North, sending it buckets of cash and aid in return for guarantees Kim Jong-Il will not make trouble in the peninsula.
So much for North Korea's "friends."
Only Tokyo, which introduced its own tough measures days after the bomb test, is expected to follow the US's firmer line, though the new Japanese PM may want to steer a course between the soft line his Asian partners take and the tougher line Dr Rice hopes to achieve.
