North Korean Attack on South Aimed at Restarting Nuclear Talks With U.S.
North Korean Attack Aimed Restarting Nuclear Talks With US
Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. State Department's special envoy to North Korea.
Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. State Department's special envoy to North Korea. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Young-mok Kim, consul general for the Republic of Korea in New York, talks about North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island. North Korea lobbed artillery shells at the island near the disputed border between the two countries, killing two soldiers and setting houses ablaze. South Korea returned fire and scrambled fighter jets. Kim talks with Lisa Murphy on Bloomberg Television's "Fast Forward." (Source: Bloomberg)
Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- William Cohen, chief executive officer of the Cohen Group and a former U.S. defense secretary, talks about North Korea's attack on a civilian-populated South Korean island near their disputed border. South Korea scrambled fighter jets and returned artillery fire after North Korea provoked the peninsula’s most serious confrontation in decades by lobbing dozens of shells onto Yeonpyeong island. Cohen speaks with Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness." (Source: Bloomberg)
Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Donald Straszheim, senior managing director for China research at International Strategy & Investment Group, discusses the exchange of artillery fire between North Korea and South Korea, and the outlook for China's reaction. North Korea lobbed artillery shells at a South Korean island near their border, killing two soldiers and setting houses ablaze in the worst attack on its neighbor in at least eight months. Straszheim speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Patrick Perret-Green, head of Asian foreign-exchange strategy at Citigroup Inc., talks about the North Korean attack on the southern island of Yeonpyeong. He speaks with Andrea Catherwood on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." (Source: Bloomberg)
Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Kenneth Lieberthal, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, talks about North Korea fired artillery shells today at the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong near the disputed border between the two countries, killing two soldiers and setting houses ablaze in the worst attack on its neighbor in at least eight months. Lieberthal talks with Jon Erlichman on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg)
North Korean Attack Aimed Restarting Nuclear Talks With US
Getty Images
In this image provided by a local resident, smoke rises from South Korea's Yeonpyeong island near the border against North Korea.
In this image provided by a local resident, smoke rises from South Korea's Yeonpyeong island near the border against North Korea. Source: Getty Images
North Korea’s attack on a South Korean island, along with its disclosure of nuclear advances, is part of a strategy to draw the U.S. back to the negotiating table, analysts in the U.S. and Asia say.
It isn’t likely to succeed, and the result could be increased tension between the U.S. and China, North Korea’s closest ally, said the analysts, including Bruce Klingner, a former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Korea branch.
“If anything, it’s likely to have the reverse effect, in that Washington and Seoul are likely to be more determined to resist” North Korean tactics, said Klingner, now a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington research group.
North Korea fired artillery shells yesterday at the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong near the disputed border between the two countries, killing two soldiers and setting houses ablaze in the worst attack on its neighbor in at least eight months.
South Korea returned fire and scrambled fighter jets as President Lee Myung Bak vowed to respond “sternly.” The clash came 11 days after North Korea showed a uranium-enrichment plant to visiting U.S. scientists.
The shelling can be viewed “as part of a campaign of provocation to force South Korea and the U.S. back to the negotiating table,” said Paul Stares, director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington policy group.
Buying Silence
The North Korean strategy is “to be such a nuisance that the U.S. says, ‘Enough, we’ll negotiate to buy your silence for the time being,’” Stares said in a telephone interview.
The White House, which takes a two-track policy of pressure and negotiations toward North Korea, issued a statement of condemnation calling on the North to “halt its belligerent action” and saying it was “firmly committed” to defend South Korea.
At a Beijing press conference, U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth said the U.S. and China would coordinate on how to resume talks between North Korea and the other nations that had been negotiating over the North’s nuclear program: the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters in Beijing that “We hope the parties do more to contribute to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.” Reports on North Korea’s new uranium-enrichment plant underscore the need for disarmament talks, Hong said.
“What is important is to restart six-party nuclear talks at an early date,” he said.
Six-Party Talks
At the last six-party talks in December 2008, North Korea pledged to abandon its program.
Negotiations came to a halt after North Korea launched a rocket in April 2009. The U.S., South Korea and Japan have accused the country of developing long-range missiles to carry nuclear weapons. North Korea said the rocket was carrying a communications satellite.
President Barack Obama’s administration called for tougher international sanctions to punish the North Korean regime, which went on in May 2009 to conduct its first nuclear test in three years.
The United Nations Security Council responded in June 2009 by approving a U.S.-backed resolution to curb loans and money transfers to Pyongyang.
The financial restrictions have left North Korea desperate to restart talks, said William Cohen, defense secretary under former President Bill Clinton.
“It’s ‘feed us before we kill again,’” he said in an interview. “They need rice, they need food, they need fuel, and this is their way of saying, ‘We’re going to misbehave and get your attention back on our needs.’”
A failure of the strategy could “lead North Korea to implement yet more escalations,” said Klingner.
Military Friction
Stares said the attack could be a flare-up of longstanding military friction over sovereignty in the disputed maritime area. He said it also may be a North Korean effort to burnish the credentials of leader Kim Jong Il’s son and designated heir, Kim Jong Un, who made his public debut in September.
Obama and Lee have limited options in responding, said Andrei Lankov, an associate professor at Kookmin University in Seoul.
“What can South Korea do apart from a bit of chest beating?” Lankov said in a telephone interview. “If they reply with artillery or shelling some North Korean positions” it will make things “more difficult,” he said.
Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, said China would make it hard to impose additional UN sanctions against North Korea. “China would block them,” he said.
Klinger said that China’s failure to “respond in a proper manner and pressure North Korea” was already fraying U.S.-China ties.
Sailors Killed
After the March 26 sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan that killed 46 sailors, China refused to accept the findings of an international investigation that found evidence North Korea was responsible and rejected U.S. requests to pressure the North.
“The bloom is off the Chinese rose because the U.S. now sees that it really has not been helpful in the six-party talks and has been more of an impediment than a catalyst for progress,” Klingner said.
China has its reasons for keeping North Korea appeased, Stares said. A failed North Korean state could lead to a unified Korea and the potential extension of U.S. power on China’s border, he said. The U.S. has about 25,000 troops in the South.
“China does not want to pressure North Korea so much that it essentially collapses,” Stares said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at ngaouette@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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