US exploits Korean clash to step up pressure on China

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US exploits Korean clash to step up pressure on China
By John Chan
25 November 2010

The Obama administration has moved to exploit the tensions on the Korean
Peninsula, heightened by Tuesday’s exchange of artillery shelling between the
two Koreas, to exert increased pressure on China, Washington’s emerging rival
for hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tuesday’s death toll on the South Korean side has risen to four, following the
discovery of the bodies of two construction workers on the island of Yeonpyeong.
Two South Korean soldiers were also killed by a North Korean artillery barrage.
The extent of damage in North Korea, after the South Korean military reportedly
“returned fire” with 80 rounds of shells, remains unclear. Asian and
international share markets tumbled on Wednesday, reflecting fears of further
military clashes and the possible involvement of the major powers.

Far from acting to reduce tensions, the Obama administration decided on
Wednesday to send the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS George
Washington, and five other warships, to the Yellow Sea to hold joint exercises
with South Korea. The New York Times reported yesterday that while the US
participation in the exercises was planned in July, “the presidents of both
nations set the specific date [November 28-December 1] in response to the
artillery attack by North Korea.”

In July, China strongly objected to any deployment of the USS George Washington
in the Yellow Sea, which lies between China and Korea, as a national security
threat. China held major military exercises of its own in the area to underscore
Beijing’s extreme sensitivity. While that proposed naval drill between the US
and South Korea was then shifted to the Sea of Japan, the Obama administration
repeatedly insisted it would eventually deploy the aircraft carrier to the
Yellow Sea. The timing of the carrier fleet’s proposed deployment, amid the
acute tensions between the two Koreas, is therefore particularly provocative.

According to media reports, many ordinary people in South Korea fear there could
be a full-scale war. Kim Mi-sook, whose son is in the first year of military
service, told the Korea Herald: “I began panicking the moment I heard of the
breaking news. Any small signs of provocation or armed actions by the North
would be enough to excite anxiety in a soldier’s mother, and what’s worse,
today’s situation seems to be more warlike than ever.”

Residents in Inchon, on the west coast of South Korea, near where the latest
shelling took place, had their fears exacerbated by the high alert declared by
the government, which closed harbours and restricted civilian and traffic
movements. Hundreds of Yeonpyeong island residents arrived in Inchon as
refugees. Jeon Seung-wook, a local resident said: “I fear that the situation may
expand and get worse.”

President Obama told ABC News on Tuesday that the US was firmly committed to
militarily back South Korea. He pointedly described the two countries’ alliance
as “a cornerstone of US security in the Pacific region”. Obama also branded the
North Korea as “a serious and ongoing threat that needs to be dealt with”. The
US president phoned South Korean President Lee Myung-bak last night to reaffirm
Washington’s commitment to the military alliance.

With this strong US backing, Lee’s Grand National Party (GNP) government is
taking a hard-line stance, threatening military retaliation in the event of
future North Korean attacks. The GNP is the party of the former South Korean
military dictatorship that was propped up by the US during the Cold War.

North Korea has insisted that its shelling was a counterattack. It accused
forces involved in South Korea’s large-scale “Hoguk” military exercise in the
Yellow Sea of firing shells into North Korea’s territorial waters.

North Korea has never accepted the Northern Limited Line dividing the
territorial waters in the Yellow Sea. The line was imposed by the US-led forces
after the Korean War ended in 1953. In 1999, North Korea declared its own
demarcation of the disputed waters, leading to two deadly clashes. At least 17
North Korean sailors were killed during one naval fire fight. In 2002, four
South Koreans and about 30 North Koreans died in another skirmish. Fighting also
occurred in November 2009, when South Korean ships severely damaged a North
Korean boat, just on the eve of Obama’s first visit to Asia.

Earlier this year, the US seized upon the sinking of the South Korean warship
Cheonan in March in the same disputed waters, even though North Korea denied any
role in the incident. Despite being shifted from the Sea of Japan, July’s
US-South Korean joint naval exercises were aimed at North Korea from the Sea of
Japan.

Now the US administration is escalating the pressure on China. On Tuesday, Obama
called on China to tell North Korea “that there are a set of international rules
they need to abide by”. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley declared
yesterday: “China does have influence with North Korea and we would hope and
expect China would use that influence.”

For China to “influence” North Korea would mean moving to cut off aid to its
already impoverished ally and force it to meet US demands. Pyongyang has
suffered from decades of sanctions by the US and its allies. China is North
Korea’s largest aid provider and investor, and is actively seeking to open up
the country for Chinese companies to use as a cheap labour platform.

Sections of the US media have called on the White House to accuse Beijing of
being culpable for North Korea’s “provocations”. A Washington Post editorial on
Tuesday declared: “The United States and its allies should hold Beijing
responsible for putting a stop to Mr. Kim’s [North Korean leader] dangerous
behaviour.”

John Bolton, US ambassador to the UN under the George W. Bush administration,
told the USA Today: “The threat from North Korea is not going to end until North
Korea ends.” He declared: “It’s matter of squeezing them, isolating them
completely”. Bolton asserted that China “has the unique capability of
determining events in North Korea”.

Concerns that an “overreaction” by the US could trigger a wider conflict with
China led former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski to write in
the Financial Times on Tuesday: “Critically, however, our approach to China
should not be adversarial. It is not in America’s nor China’s interest to create
massive popular hostility… A call from Mr. Obama to Mr. Hu should be a call
between leaders who share a concern. It should not be an American demand, nor an
admonition.”

While the White House confirmed today that Obama would call Chinese President Hu
Jintao in the next few days, Obama’s decision to send the USS George Washington
to the Yellow Sea indicates that the White House is taking a course that could
lead to confrontation with China.

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/nov2010/kore-n25.shtml

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