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Tadae Takubo

【#189 】Appeasement Policy to N. Korea Could Revive G-2 Collusion

Tadae Takubo ／ 2013.04.17 (Wed)


April 15, 2013

　　

　　　　　　U.S. President Barack Obama in his second term may hope to focus on domestic welfare while reducing the United States' role as the policeman of the world. In response to North Korea's crazy threats, the United States mobilized B-2 and B-52 strategic bombers and F-22 stealth fighters for its joint drill with South Korea to demonstrate its military readiness. But the action has turned out to be a bluff. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on April 15 after his brief visits to Seoul and Beijing, might have finished most of his mission before arriving in Tokyo.

Kerry's talks amounting to 1938 Munich Conference?
　　　　　　South Korean President Park Geun-hye told Kerry in Seoul that while her government would strongly respond to North Korea for its daring ballistic missile launch and nuclear weapon tests and for its insulting provocations against Japan, the United States and South Korea, Seoul would cooperate with Pyongyang if the North changed its attitude and accepted talks. In Beijing, Kerry said the United States and China joined together in calling on North Korea to refrain from provocations and to abide by international obligations.
　　　　　　At the 1938 Munich Conference, then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to avoid an imminent crisis and took an appeasing approach to German leader Adolf Hitler's demand for Sudeten of Czechoslovakia. The approach might have seemed to be a wise choice for the immediate future. But it encouraged Hitler to put the world into a chaos.
　　　　　　It could be somewhat crude to view Kerry's attitude in Seoul and Beijing as amounting to that of Chamberlain in Munich. But the attitude might have pleased North Korea and allowed China to avoid halting food and energy supply to North Korea in a fatal action and get satisfied with feeling its growing diplomatic value. Relevant countries' diplomatic goal could be the resumption of meaningless six-party talks on North Korea problems.

China-U.S. coalition could damage Japan-U.S. alliance
　　　　　　The United States and China, though having cyber terror and other problems, agreed to hold their fifth Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington in the week of July 8-12. A high-powered Chinese delegation to the dialogue will include Vice Premier Wang Yang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi. Among U.S. delegates will be Secretary Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
　　　　　　Pro-China bipartisan intellectuals including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former presidential national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are likely to call for promoting a Group of Two coalition for the United States and China to govern the international order. Wise men such as Kissinger should have understood that such coalition could work to collapse security relations that the United States has built with Japan and other allies and friends.
　
Tadae Takubo is Vice President, Japan Institute for National Fundamentals.