Japan Praised for Stance on North Korea
Patrick Goodenough
International Editor

(CNSNews.com) - As the U.N. Security Council moves towards voting on a resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea for its recent missile tests, hopes for a unified international response appear to be fading fast.

Not only are China and Russia (North Korea's closest allies, both with veto powers) sticking to their opposition to a legally binding council resolution, but a gap between U.S. allies Japan and South Korea over how to handle the threat is widening (see related story).

Political scholar Ralph Cossa argued that last week's launch of seven long, medium and short-range missiles was a test not only of the weaponry, but also a test of neighboring countries' and the international community's willingness to stare down North Korea.
 

So far, he argued, Japan was the one country to have "stood true to its warnings." Having warned ahead of the tests that it would appeal to the Security Council (UNSC) if North Korea went ahead, Tokyo was now doing so, leading the campaign in the U.N. body.

Shrugging off North Korea's threats of "stronger measures" and "devastating consequences," Japan is pushing for a resolution demanding that Pyongyang "immediately cease the development, testing, deployment, and proliferation of ballistic missiles" and requiring member states to impose sanctions on materials and technology that could benefit North Korea's missile or weapons of mass destruction programs.

The measure, which is backed by the U.S. and Britain and may be put to a vote on Monday, would also require North Korea to resume a moratorium on missile launches and urge it to return to stalled six-nation talks on its nuclear programs.

China and Russia are pressing for the council to adopt a non-binding presidential statement instead of the resolution, but Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso voiced the hope in interviews broadcast Sunday that the two may in the end abstain rather than block the measure.

He said Russia may do so because within days it hosts a summit of leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. It would not want to be isolated there in supporting North Korea, at odds with fellow G8 members the U.S., Japan, Britain, France, Canada, Germany and France.

If Russia abstained, Aso said, it would be "unthinkable" for China to vote against the resolution on is own.

Japan's views on North Korea are shaped in part by Pyongyang's apparent targeting of Japan with its missiles. Last week's missiles -- including the long-range Taepodong-II, which failed after 40 seconds -- all landed in the Sea of Japan The preceding missile test, in 1998, involved the firing of a medium-range missile clear over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean.

Many Japanese also harbor ill will towards North Korea over its abduction of Japanese citizens during the 1970s-80s.

In an opinion poll conducted for Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 90 percent of respondents supported the government's decision to press ahead with a U.N. resolution, and 92 percent backed sanctions against Pyongyang.

Like Japan and the U.S., China, Russia and South Korea had earlier also appealed to the Kim Jong-il regime not to go ahead with the launches, but have since been prevaricating.

"Thus far Beijing has all-too-predictably tried to have it both ways, criticizing the missile launches but also standing in the way of harsh UNSC action while hoping that 'all sides will maintain calm and restraint,' " said Cossa, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Pacific Forum.

"Like the Chinese, the Russians are also back-peddling, opposing sanctions in favor of a 'diplomatic solution.' "

Cossa noted that there was a time when Security Council action, including the threat or actual imposition of sanctions, was considered a "diplomatic solution."

Asked about the stance of China and Russia, Cossa said China had still not made the transition from its professed role as "protector of the Third World," to one that is being promoted by Washington -- that of a "responsible stakeholder" in the global system.

In Moscow's case, "Russia is making itself irrelevant or digging itself into a deeper hole with Washington."

The two countries' position "does not serve their long-term interests; nor does it bode well for the UNSC's future relevance," he said.

According to Carnegie Endowment senior associate Robert Kagan, Russia and China are trying to "resist the encroachments of liberalism" -- an approach seen in their blocking of Western sanctions against Sudan and Iran, and their embracing of dictators in Belarus, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and Burma.

Although Russia and China are not natural allies, need access to Western markets, and share interests with Western powers, "as autocracies they do have important interests in common, both with each other and with other autocracies," he wrote earlier this year.

"All are under siege in an era when liberalism does seem to be expanding. No-one should be surprised if, in response, an informal league of dictators has emerged, sustained and protected by Moscow and Beijing as best they can."