La Casa Bianca cerca l’aiuto cinese per il Nord Corea/ Usa e Sud Corea iniziano esercitazioni navali congiunte

La Casa Bianca cerca l’aiuto cinese per il Nord Corea/ Usa e Sud Corea iniziano esercitazioni navali congiunte

●    Nel tentativo di coinvolgere la Cina per frenare il Nord Corea, l’Amministrazione Obama ha deciso di accelerare il dispiegamento di un gruppo di navi americane nella regione (guidato dalla portaerei George Washington), per le già previste esercitazioni congiunte con il Sud Corea (dalla prossima domenica a mercoledì):

o   secondo i calcoli americani, a fronte del rischio di espansione delle manovre militari americane al largo delle sue coste, la Cina deciderà che far pressione sul Nord Corea è il minore dei mali.

[L’amm. Mullen, che presiede lo stato maggiore congiunto ha sollecitato l’intervento della Cina, definita “assolutamente fondamentale”, l’unico paese che ha influenza su Piongjiang. Il presidente Obama intende chiederlo direttamente per telefono al presidente cinese; la segretaria di Stato, Hillary Clinton, farà altrettanto con l’omologo cinese, Yan Jiechi, …]

– Negli ultimi mesi la Cina si è dimostrata riluttante a intervenire sul Nord Corea, per timore di destabilizzarne il governo che si trova in una fase di successione;

– la riunificazione della penisola coreana, con gli Usa come alleati, va contro gli interessi strategici cinesi.

– Tuttavia, dopo l’avvertimento della scorsa settimana contro qualsiasi “operazione militare” senza il suo permesso nella sua esclusiva area economica,

o   con l’inizio delle esercitazioni militari congiunte Usa-Sud Corea, Pechino ha invece dato il via ad una serie di iniziative diplomatiche: un incontro di un consigliere di Stato per gli affari esteri cinese con il presidente del Sud Corea;[1] invito ad un alto funzionario sudcoreano ad un incontro per la settima entrante; ha chiesto una riunione di emergenza del gruppo dei sei sul nucleare nordcoreano, alla ripresa del quale è favorevole anche la Russia.

– Al di là delle espressioni forti, il Sud Corea non sembra intenda ricorrere a rappresaglie più vigorose contro l’attacco nell’isola di Yonpyong, il primo ad un’area di civili dopo la fine della guerra di Corea (1950-53) … Seoul si sarebbe finora limitata a mettere in allerta le forze armate, e inviare i suoi caccia F-15, e truppe aggiuntive nell’area in prossimità del confine conteso con il Nord Corea.

Né le sanzioni rafforzate volute da Usa e Sud Corea dopo il test nucleare nordcoreano del 2009, né la ripresa degli aiuti e la diplomazia hanno ottenuto la cooperazione del Nord Corea.

U.S. and South Korea Begin Joint Naval Exercises

By MARTIN FACKLER

SEOUL, South Korea — The United States and South Korea began naval exercises on Sunday that were meant as a warning to North Korea for recent provocations, including last week’s deadly artillery attack on a island populated by South Koreans in the Yellow Sea.

–   At the same time, China stepped up its diplomatic efforts to cool tempers in the region, with a senior envoy holding a meeting on Sunday morning with South Korea’s president and Beijing announcing that it had invited a senior North Korean official for talks this week. China also called for an emergency meeting of the so-called six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, news agencies reported.

North Korean artillery was heard Sunday on the island, though no shells landed there and South Korea considered it just a drill, according to a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The North Koreans also shot off artillery on Friday, after a visit by an American general to the island, called Yeonpyeong.

The announcement of the naval exercises last week raised already heightened tensions, angering both North Korea and its patron, China, and stirring intense speculation in the South Korean news media about whether the North would respond violently.

–   After the announcement, China warned against “any military act” in its exclusive economic zone without permission, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. But virtually all the waters to the west of the Korean Peninsula fall within that 200 nautical mile limit. It was not immediately clear if the American and South Korean flotilla, which included the United States aircraft carrier George Washington, had sailed into that area.

China’s diplomatic efforts came after days of entreaties from Washington and its allies to exert a moderating influence on North Korea.

–   The Chinese envoy, state counselor in charge of foreign affairs, Dai Bingguo, met with South Korea’s president, Lee Myung-bak, as part of a previously unannounced visit to Seoul, according to a senior South Korean official.

–   China’s diplomatic initiative also included the planned talks with Choe Tae-bok, chairman of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, who will pay an official visit to China starting Tuesday.

The United States has hoped that China would use its leverage over North Korea to restrain it from any further attacks, but so far China has not rebuked the North’s leaders, at least in public. And when China did finally make a strong public statement late last week on the attack — the one warning against military actions in its economic zone — it directed its pique at the United States for the naval exercises.

–   The show of force was designed both to deter further attacks by the North and to signal to China that unless it reins in its unruly ally, it may see an even larger American presence in the vicinity.

–   The flurry of diplomacy over the weekend followed days of recriminations by both Koreas. On Saturday, North Korea accused South Korea of using civilians as human shields around military bases on the island. The accusation, reported by the North’s official news agency, is apparently an effort to redirect South Korean outrage over the barrage, which killed two civilian construction workers and two South Korean marines.

“If the U.S. brings its carrier to the West Sea of Korea at last, no one can predict the ensuing consequences,” the report said, using the Korean name for the Yellow Sea.

Also on Saturday, at least two protests were staged in Seoul that criticized both North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, for the attack and South Korea’s president for what many here see as the military’s failure to make more than a token response.

–   The bombardment of the island was the first attack on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War, and it enraged the South Koreans far more than previous provocations by the North, including its nuclear weapons tests and the sinking in March of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. Despite the findings of an international investigation, North Korea denies responsibility for the sinking.

–   The North has said that Tuesday’s attack was carried out in response to South Korean artillery drills earlier that day on the island, which sits within sight of the North Korean mainland. On the morning of the attack, North Korea warned South Korea not to conduct the drills.

–   Citing those warnings, North Korea said it had made “superhuman efforts to prevent the clash at the last moment.” It also offered an uncharacteristic show of remorse, calling the civilian deaths “very regrettable.”

The comments were apparently an attempt to present the North’s view of events to the South Korean public, which has reacted to Tuesday’s attack with uncharacteristic vehemence toward the North.

Ian Johnson contributed reporting from Beijing, and Su-Hyun Lee and Sharon LaFraniere from Seoul.

November 24, 2010

White House Seeks Chinese Help With N. Korea

By HELENE COOPER and MARTIN FACKLER

–   The Obama administration on Wednesday began a broad effort to enlist China to help rein in North Korea in the wake of its deadly attack Tuesday on South Korea.

–   Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged China to act, calling Beijing “absolutely critical” to the international effort to get North Korea to stop its military provocations. “It’s very important for China to lead,” Admiral Mullen said Wednesday on the ABC program “The View.” “The one country that has influence in Pyongyang is China.”

–   President Obama was preparing to make a personal telephone plea to President Hu Jintao of China, White House officials said. They added that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is likely to call China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, to follow up on similar calls from other senior American officials to their Chinese counterparts.

–   But few analysts expect China, wary of destabilizing the North, its unpredictable neighbor, to employ its economic and military leverage in any substantial way to try to alter its behavior. And in Seoul, the South Korean government was left struggling to find the right response, as President Lee Myung-bak found himself with no clear way to proceed despite his past vows to take a hard line against the North.

–   Mr. Lee spent Wednesday conferring with stern-faced generals and talking on the phone with world leaders like Mr. Obama, who offered him sympathy and support over the artillery attack on Tuesday on a South Korean island, the latest in a series of provocations by the North.

–   Mr. Lee’s government traded threats with the North, warning of heavy retaliation should it attack again, while the North warned against even the slightest incursions into its territory.

–   But despite the strong words, South Korea is showing few signs of planning a more forceful retaliation to the attack on Yeonpyeong Island, which killed two civilians and two marines. While it placed its armed forces on high alert and sent F-15 fighter jets to the area, South Korea’s only military response so far came during the attack itself, when marines on the island returned fire at North Korean positions.

–   On Thursday, the South’s government ordered the deployment of extra troops on islands near the disputed border with North Korea, Reuters reported

–   On Wednesday, during an emergency session of the National Assembly, South Korea’s legislature, right-wing lawmakers called for bolder military action in response to the shelling and criticized Mr. Lee for not retaliating with greater force right away.

–   “North Korea’s artillery stronghold should have been destroyed three minutes after the attack,” said one lawmaker, Song Kwang-ho. “South Korea’s air force sallied forth but did not attack. The gong sounded, and it’s too late now. Where were our resolute measures?”

–   The impasse underscored the quandary both countries face: neither the strengthened sanctions Mr. Obama and Mr. Lee pushed after a North Korean nuclear test last year, nor the resumed aid and diplomacy Mr. Lee tried just a few months ago, have persuaded the North to cooperate with the outside world.

For that reason, both have looked to China for crucial assistance. The reclusive government in North Korea is diplomatically isolated to begin with; its sole big supporter is China.

–   But while China has in the past tried to influence North Korea, it has been reluctant to do so in recent months. The reason in part, analysts say, is that Beijing does not want to destabilize the North when it is in the middle of a succession process brought on by the illness of its leader, Kim Jong-il, who is believed to be making way for one of his sons, Kim Jong-un, to take over.

–   “Beijing doesn’t want the collapse of the regime,” said Victor Cha, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. China, said Mr. Cha, who worked at the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, has “made the core strategic calculation that unification of the North and the South, with the United States as an ally, is not in Chinese interests.”

–   That puts the Obama administration and South Korea in the precarious position of trying to press Beijing to take a stand that China’s leaders do not believe to be in China’s best interests — a tough job under any circumstances, but particularly now, during North Korea’s succession.

–   Mr. Obama’s decision to accelerate the deployment of an American aircraft carrier group to the region is intended to prod the Chinese. American officials hope that by presenting Beijing with an unpalatable result — the expansion of American maneuvers off its shores — China will decide that pressing North Korea is the lesser of two evils.

–   Pentagon officials said the joint exercise in waters west of the Korean Peninsula would run Sunday to Wednesday. Military officials said the carrier George Washington had been preparing to sail from its port in Japan to join the Japanese Navy in an exercise to begin Dec. 3.

–   After the artillery exchange between the two Koreas, the carrier was ordered to drill with South Korea’s navy before joining the Japanese.

–   “To the Chinese, the message is that if North Korea undertakes actions such as uranium enrichment or the attack on the South that threaten our equities, the U.S. will respond in ways that negatively affect China’s perceived interests,” a senior administration official said on Wednesday. “The response is directed at messaging North Korea and reassuring South Korea, but China clearly does not like to see U.S. aircraft carriers, for example, in the Yellow Sea.”

–   The administration is also considering additional joint exercises with South Korea, administration officials said, although they declined to say exactly what form those largely symbolic exercises might take. One administration official said the additional exercises could include naval and air exercises, or even exercises involving ground troops.

–   Beijing was largely silent eight months ago, when North Korea was accused of sinking a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, and killing 46 sailors.

–   Similarly, Beijing did not have much to say this week, after a visiting American nuclear scientist reported that North Korea had shown him what was described as a just completed centrifuge plant that, if it becomes fully operational, could enable North Korea to enrich uranium into nuclear fuel and add to its arsenal of 8 to 12 nuclear weapons.

–   “We would welcome a more clear-cut Chinese position, differentiating between the aggressor and the victim in the attack,” the Obama administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under diplomatic rules. “And making clear the unacceptability of uranium enrichment. We’d like to see a more clear-cut Chinese position on both of those issues.”

–   Mr. Lee, who took office taking a tough line against the North, now finds himself under pressure for not being tough enough. “There is widespread disappointment with Lee Myung-bak for being too prudent and restrained,” said Oh Kyoung-seok, a researcher on inter-Korean relations at the Sejong Institute. “First we endured the Cheonan and now this. We are sending North Korea the message that they can do whatever they please.”

Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Martin Fackler from Seoul, South Korea. Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington.