North Korea’s Kim is Back With a Bang–Northeast Asia’s Escalating Nuclear Crisis

Webster Brooks SIRIUS/XM Interview on North Korean Nuclear Crisis  (Click to hear interview)

 On June 3, 2009, Editor Webster Brooks discussed North Korea’s underground nuclear test and its policy implications for America and Northeast Asia.  Brooks was interviewd by Charles Ellison, Senior Fellow at the Center for New Politics and Policy on the weekly SIRIUS/XM satellite radio talk show “The New School”

Calling North Korea’s Bluff Will Force China to Crackdown

by Collin Spears – Visiting Fellow, Center for New Politics and Policy

If the United States and its allies want to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, and not just temporarily allay tensions, they must call Kim Jong-Il’s bluff by escalating the situation.  As North Korea’s primary benefactor, China is the only nation that can force the North to dismantle its nuclear arsenal and return to 6-Party Talks.  However, China will not exert such pressure, until the threat of instability on its border forces it to recalculate the utility of supporting the Kim regime. When the liability of North Korea becomes a greater threat to China’s internal security than the potential presence of American troops at its border, China will cooperate with the American alliance.  Contrary to common media depiction, Kim is a rational actor.  In fact, when scrutinizing North Korea’s conduct with the supposition that every action it has taken is for the preservation of Kim’s personal power, it is apparent that even the most provocative actions have been deliberate.  America must use a realist approach to exploit these aims, if it wants to end the last great impasses of the Cold War.

How Japan Can Finally Say “No”

Japan Prime Minister Taro Aso speaks to reporters on Sunday following reports of a N. Korean rocket launch.

by Collin Spears, Washington, DC Bureau Chief

It is highly unlikely the U.S. and Japan will be able to obtain the cooperation of Russia and China, because both are hesitant to say that the test violates any UN resolutions, due to Pyongyang’s claim of a satellite launch. Despite this, the U.S. should at least make the effort. Second, any Six-Party Talks agreements must contain an agreement by North Korea to set up a joint committee with Japan to reinvestigate the abductions of Japanese citizens in return for Japan lifting its sanctions. The Japanese have the leverage to do so; the only question is if the Japanese leadership has the will.

In 1990, the controversial right-wing Governor of Tokyo, Ishihara Shintaro, published “The Japan That Can Say No: Why Japan Will Be First Among Equals”. Although Ishihara’s book stoked long simmering nationalist fires, nearly 20 years later, many Japanese are still speculating if or when Japan can “say no” to the United States, the target of Ishihara’s book. As since the end of World War II (WWII), Japan has continued to work closely with the United States on global security issues. Still, there has been a growing concern in Japan that America has not been attentive in addressing Japanese security concerns, especially regarding North Korea. This situation may be the tipping point in U.S. – Japanese relations where Tokyo truly becomes an independent actor for the first time in 60 years.