news details |
|
|
| Pyongyang joins nuclear club | | North Korean regime's contempt for world opinion | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI: Clearly, in total defiance of the international community, North Korea has gone ahead and conducted the nuclear test it promised last week. There are serious implications of Pyongyang joining the club of nuclear weapons states for Asia and the world at large. It is the eighth country — and arguably the most unstable and most dangerous — to develop nuclear weapons.
In doing so, North Korea has not only ignored the calls by its neighbours such as South Korea and Japan but also paid no attention to stern warnings delivered by the US and China, the latter being its close ally and source of all its crucial supplies. In a rare show of unity, the UN Security Council passed a unanimous vote on Thursday warning Pyongyang of serious consequences if it tested the nuclear weapon. All this of course proved pointless with Pyongyang going ahead with the test.
This only goes to show the North Korean regime’s contempt for the world opinion. But then national interests and actions have never been dictated by concerns about global popularity. In any case, Pyongyang’s action trains spotlight on the clear and present danger our world faces in the reckless regime led by maverick Kim Jong Il. The world community would ignore the ‘Dear Leader’ at its own cost. Paradoxically, this is what he wants, too. Kim wants to be taken seriously by the world, especially by the US, which he loves to hate.
In flaunting his nukes and constant sabre-rattling with his neighbours, the North Korean leader is not only underscoring his nuisance value but is desperately seeking help too. So Kim may be mad but there is a method in his madness. It is hardly a secret that North Korea, with all its bravado and excessive arrogance, is in deep trouble in every sense. Isolated from the rest of the world, its economy has collapsed. There are reports of thousands of North Koreans dying of starvation as the country battles the effects of repeated famines. Lucky ones manage to flee to China Korea or South Korea. North Korea is critically dependant on aid from its arch-rival, South Korea, and the UN. This is a country that is going through a grave existential crisis. Which makes it all the more dangerous to its neighbours and the world at large.
This is why the international community will have to deal with the North Korean regime with patience and perseverance. Any punitive action against Pyongyang could further isolate the country and end up punishing its imprisoned people. North Korea’s nukes must be neutralised with diplomacy and persistent engagement with the regime. This is the only way to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in Asia Pacific. And this is the only way to rein in the nuclear North Korea.
By carrying out an underground nuclear test on Monday (October 9), North Korea has crashed into the exclusive nuclear club comprising the five permanent members of the Security Council, besides the three unrecognised, de facto nuclear powers — Pakistan, India and Israel. Conducted in defiance of the Security Council’s appeal, the test effectively seals the fate of the six-party talks which Beijing had been hosting, creates new tensions in the Korean peninsula and increases the danger of nuclear proliferation. Unlike the nuclear tests by Pakistan and India, which were carried out within South Asia’s power equation, the North Korean test is likely to have wider repercussions, especially for two of America’s major allies in the Far East — South Korea and Japan.
While the official North Korean news agency called the test “a stirring time” in which the people are making “a great leap forward in building a great, prosperous powerful socialist nation,” the truth is that the country cannot produce enough food to feed its 23 million people. Its government-controlled agricultural system collapsed in the mid-nineties, and since then it has relied on China for food.
Pakistan must, of course, brace itself for a new wave of accusations from unfriendly sections of the western media, which would try to find a Pakistani or A.Q. Khan link to the North Korean test. The Pyongyang test, nevertheless, highlights the dangers of nuclear proliferation. The behaviour of the western powers, America especially, is not above board, because they themselves have contributed to nuclear proliferation by aiding Israel in its clandestine nuclear project.
===========================
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
