Sunday, September 19, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Seoul, Washington heighten tensions in northeast Asia
Garibov Konstantin | 4.09.2010, 15:02 |
Tension is growing in North-East Asia now that Seoul and Washington are about to get down to practicing the detection and destruction of North Korea’s sea targets. The manoeuvres, the second in the last three months, are due in the Yellow Sea on the 5th through the 9th of September. Pyongyang has described the exercise as a grave military provocation. Beijing says the manoeuvres are a violent challenge to the situation in the region.
South Korea and the United States are flexing muscle in response to the incident around the South Korean corvette Cheonan. The two accuse Pyongyang of sinking the corvette, while the latter emphatically denies its involvement in the incident and calls for an independent inquiry into the tragedy.
Seoul and Washington have reacted by bringing unprecedented pressure to bear on North Korea. In July they used 20 warships to destroy conventional enemy targets in the Yellow Sea, including the US nuclear-powered aircraft-carrier The George Washington, as well as 200 planes and helicopters. This time, the US and South Korea are using 6 missile destroyers, high-speed frigates and antisubmarine planes that are due to destroy an allegedly North Korean submarine.
The current military exercise of South Korea and the United States have strongly angered China. August saw major growth of the Pentagon’s military activity in Asia and the Pacific. The United States held three war games involving South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore and Vietnam.
The next naval exercise, due in December, will involve a US and Japanese naval force, and is due to rehearse the defence of the Shenkaku Islands (the Chinese name for the islands is Dyaoyuydao), in the East China Sea. The islands are contested by Beijing.
China slammed an earlier attempt by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to mediate in Beijing's long-running territorial disputes with its neighbors over the islands in the South China Sea. During the ASEAN forum in Hanoi in July Clinton made it perfectly clear that mediation in the conflict over the 200-odd isles and atolls claimed by China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan was in America's best interest.
Many see this as just another US attempt to check China's expansion in the strategic part of the world.
China is building up its clout, much to the chagrin of the Americans who have traditionally dominated the region, says Yevgeny Bazhanov, deputy rector of the Foreign Ministry's Diplomatic Academy in Moscow. South Korea and some ASEAN countries, plus Australia and New Zealand, have always been on Washington's side. What we see now, however, is the emergence of a new giant challenging America's domination and changing the balance of forces in the region... Hence all these US attempts to check the Chinese expansion, both economic and military...
Beijing apparently wants the Americans to ask it to make the North Koreans more compliant about their nuclear activities.
China has obliged so far because it is not very happy about Pyongyang's intransigence on this matter. On the other hand, China has traditionally sided with the North and will hardly tolerate any attempts to unseat the Communist regime in Pyongyang...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)