South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said South Korea opposes any military response to North Korea’s impending rocket launch. Washington’s defense chief said the US would not try to shoot it down, though Japan deployed warships armed with interceptors to deal with possible fallout of any missile test.
Meanwhile, North Korean authorities detained a South Korean worker at a border factory park for allegedly denouncing Pyongyang’s political system, further raising tensions on the divided peninsula.
The remarks on the rocket launch by Lee and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reflect attempts to be tough with Pyongyang without provoking the regime over a launch that regional powers warn would violate a UN Security Council resolution on ballistic activity, analysts said.
Japan, the US and other regional powers suspect that the expected launch between Saturday and April 8 — which Pyongyang says is a communications satellite — may be a cover for testing a long-range missile capable of reaching the western US.
South Korea and the US are taking a measured approach because they want to resume nuclear disarmament negotiations with Pyongyang — and because the US and North Korea will likely hold their first direct talks since US President Barack Obama’s inauguration after the rocket launch, analyst Kim Yong-hyun of Seoul’s Dongguk University said.
“This puts everyone in a difficult position. Taking action could provoke the North — that’s the dilemma,” said Peter Beck, an analyst who teaches Korean affairs in Seoul and Washington.
Lee, in an interview with the Financial Times published yesterday, said he was against using military means or shuttering a joint industrial complex in North Korea, a key source of hard currency for the impoverished nation, as punishment for the rocket launch.
“Taking a harder stance — I don’t think that would necessarily be helpful in achieving” Seoul’s objective of ridding the North of its nuclear weapons program, Lee told the paper.
Tensions that have heightened since Lee took office last year vowing to get tough with Pyongyang were ratcheted up further after Seoul’s Unification Ministry said yesterday that North Korean authorities had detained a worker at the joint factory complex in the city of Kaesong on the northern side of the border.
North Korea has assured Seoul it would guarantee the worker’s safety, the ministry said without providing specifics.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College