Day: January 13, 2022

The Biden administration should send a strong message to Pyongyang in response to North Korea’s recent missile tests, a former U.S. defense secretary said.

Leon Panetta, secretary of defense and CIA director during the Obama administration, said the United States and its allies “must make clear that we’re not going to tolerate aggression” by the North Koreans, and “if they continue to take provocative actions, they are endangering themselves” and “putting their own regime at risk.”

In an interview Wednesday with VOA’s Korean Service, Panetta said, “That, I think, needs to be the message that we continue to send” to the North Koreans – “that if they act this way, they are going to confront not only the United States but our allies.”

North Korea test-fired what it claimed was a supersonic missile on Tuesday. The test followed its first test of the year conducted on January 5, which the regime claimed also was a supersonic missile.

Calling North Korea’s recent missile tests “very provocative,” Panetta said it would become “much more difficult to be able to defend against it” now that Pyongyang has raised the possibility of developing a hypersonic missile “that can go almost 10 times the speed of sound.”

Status quo not possible

“It’s very important that the administration not just assume (it) can take a status quo approach to North Korea,” Panetta said. “When you’re dealing with an adversary … your relations are either getting better or they’re getting worse.

“Right now, it’s getting worse,” he said.

In response to Panetta’s comments, the U.S. State Department told VOA’s Korean Service on Thursday that “the United States harbors no hostile intent” toward North Korea, and that it is “prepared to meet” with Pyongyang “without preconditions” for denuclearization talks.

The spokesperson said Washington hopes Pyongyang will “respond positively” to its outreach as it continues “to consult closely with Republic of Korea, Japan, and other allies and partners about how to best engage” North Korea.

In response to North Korea’s missile launches, the U.S. on Wednesday imposed sanctions targeting five North Koreans for procuring goods for the regime’s weapons programs.

Panetta said, “The only way you get North Korea’s attention” for serious negotiations “is by taking steps that challenge North Koreans.” He suggested the U.S. and South Korea “reopen exercises of our military capabilities.”

The U.S. had held off large-scale military exercises with South Korea since 2018 to accommodate denuclearization talks with the former Trump administration.

Some analysts question whether a strong message from Washington would move Pyongyang toward talks.

Ken Gause, director of the Adversary Analytics Program at CNA, said, “We have not offered any carrots” that “we can take away.” Gause continued, “North Korea has nothing to lose” and is “not going to pay any attention” to what the regime perceives as “empty threats” by the U.S.

Harry Kazianis, senior director of Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest, said North Korea is likely “to match any perceived provocation with an action of its own.”

After the second test launch, North Korea warned on Friday, January 14 Pyongyang time, that it will take “stronger” action in response to the sanctions the U.S. imposed on the regime over its missile tests.

Consequences of failed policy

Panetta said Pyongyang is likely to continue its nuclear and missile activities to raise tensions further.

“It’s only a matter of time (until) they renew testing of an intercontinental missile and testing of their nuclear capabilities,” Panetta said. “The path we’re on right now, I don’t think this is a good path.”

North Korea last tested a long-range missile and a nuclear weapon in 2017 while its leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump exchanged harsh rhetoric throughout the year.

Trump’s “fire and fury” remarks unleashed at Kim that year drastically turned to showers of praise after the two held a historic summit in Singapore in June 2018.

“President Trump was very naïve in the way he approached Kim Jong Un in thinking that somehow just through the strength of personality alone, they could arrive at a denuclearization agreement,” Panetta said.

“I don’t think leaders ought to meet unless there is an effort by both countries to lay the groundwork for those discussions,” Panetta continued.

Panetta thinks the Biden administration must deal with the consequences of Trump’s failed policy that focused on personal diplomacy with Kim.

“The failure to achieve anything has led to the tension that we’re now facing,” he said. “Kim Jong Un is trying to figure out how does he get the attention of the world again,” he continued. “That’s why he’s conducting these tests.”

China’s role

Panetta suggested China could play a positive role in diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons despite Washington-Beijing rivalry.

“The relationship has gotten a lot more tense between the United States and China, but I still think there’s a possibility that China might be able to serve as perhaps a go-between here to try to see if we can be successful at opening up discussions,” Panetta said.

China, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, approved sanctions on North Korea in 2016 and 2017 passed in response to its nuclear and missile tests.

Source: Voice of America

Cambodia on Wednesday postponed the first Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting under its 2022 chairmanship, the government said, amid reports of differences among the bloc’s members over Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit to Myanmar last week, during which he did not meet with democracy leaders.

An in-person foreign ministers retreat, scheduled for next week in Siem Reap, was postponed indefinitely, according to an announcement by Khieu Kanharith, the host country’s information minister.

“The ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat (AMM Retreat) initially scheduled on Jan. 18-19, 2022, in Siem Reap province has been postponed,” he said in a statement on Facebook, without announcing a new date for the meeting.

The reason for the postponement, he added, is that many ASEAN foreign ministers “have difficulties traveling to attend the meeting.”

The postponement effectively delays the official endorsement of Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as ASEAN’s new special envoy for Myanmar.

Radio Free Asia, with which BenarNews is affiliated, tried to contact Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan and Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Koung but did not immediately hear back from them Wednesday.

Divisions within ASEAN over Hun Sen’s trip to Naypyidaw and a potential invitation to the Myanmar junta’s foreign minister to attend the ASEAN diplomats retreat might be why some diplomats chose not to attend next week’s meeting, analysts said.

ASEAN states who cited travel difficulties were likely being polite instead of saying outright that they didn’t want to go to Siem Reap, according to Sophal Ear, a Cambodia expert at Arizona State University in the United States.

“This is not officially a boycott, but [some member states’ foreign ministers] came up with some excuses as to why they cannot join the meeting. … The chickens are coming home to roost, it’s karma for Cambodia’s ‘Cowboy Diplomacy,’ ” Ear, an associate dean and professor at the university’s Thunderbird School of Management in Phoenix, told RFA.

“When you do things others don’t want you to do, they don’t come to your party and have excuses. … Be ready for a long list of reasons for why someone cannot show up,” he added.

Another Southeast Asia analyst, Hunter Marston, said Cambodia’s chairmanship had got off to a “rocky start.”

“Seems internal divisions over the chair’s invitation to the Myanmar military-appointed Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin have created an impasse,” Marston, a doctoral student at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, said on Twitter.

‘A non-political representative’

Hun Sen, the leader of Cambodia, which this year took over the revolving annual chairmanship of ASEAN, had said before going to Myanmar last week that he wanted the Burmese junta to be represented at the bloc’s meetings.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had categorically said that if Burmese coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing did not implement an earlier agreed upon five-point road map to democracy, then Myanmar should be represented only by a non-political individual at ASEAN meetings.

A Malaysian foreign ministry spokesman, meanwhile, told BenarNews on Monday that Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah would attend the Siem Reap meeting only virtually.

Critics said that Cambodia had undermined the regional bloc through Hun Sun’s meeting with the Burmese junta leader Min Aung Hlaing after he was disinvited from the ASEAN summit in late 2021 for reneging on his promises to implement the bloc’s five-point consensus. Back then, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore had backed shutting out the coup leader from the regional bloc’s top summit.

By visiting Myanmar and meeting with Min Aung Hlaing, Hun Sen legitimized him, pro-democracy activists in Myanmar said.

The military leader who toppled the elected Burmese government last February had promised, among other things, to end violence and give an ASEAN special envoy access to all parties in the Myanmar political crisis. He has done none of those things.

Min Aung Hlaing refused to allow an ASEAN special envoy access to democracy leaders last year.

Meanwhile, more than 1,400 mostly pro-democracy protesters have been killed by security forces since the February 1, 2021, coup. And a day after Hun Sen left Myanmar, National League for Democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to four more years in prison over what many said were frivolous charges.

Hun Sen may have divided the regional bloc because of what some describe as his cowboy diplomacy with Myanmar, causing more authoritarian member-states to be at odds with liberal democratic ones, analysts had said.

‘China appreciates Myanmar’s readiness’

In other developments, Japan on Tuesday “welcomed Cambodia’s active engagement as ASEAN Chair on the situation in Myanmar, and both ministers shared the view to coordinate closely,” the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

Additionally, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said that ASEAN member-state Thailand’s top diplomat had sent a “congratulatory message” saying “he strongly supported the outcomes of the Cambodia-Myanmar joint press release,” local media reported.

On Monday, China, Myanmar’s close ally, spoke in favor of Hun Sen and Cambodia, as well as Myanmar.

“China appreciates Myanmar’s readiness to create favorable conditions for ASEAN’s special envoy to fulfill his duty and [he] works toward effective alignment between Myanmar’s five-point road map and ASEAN’s five-point consensus,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.

The two road maps have nothing in common.

“China will fully support Cambodia, the rotating chair of ASEAN, in playing an active role and making [an] important contribution to properly managing the differences among parties of Myanmar,” Wang said.

Source: Voice of America