By Li Hongmei People's Daily Online
A basketball-sized object was launched into space Sunday by North Korea, stirring up globe-sized speculations, ranging from what on earth it is to whether it is a real threat or just a flop. North Korea insisted the thing it fired into orbit was nothing but a communications satellite beaming songs in praise of the nation's revolutionary leaders, while some in the Western world believed the launch was a long-range ballistic missile test.
Media of North Korea jumped on the chance to cook up the story, as the impoverished country was currently in desperate demand of a golden chance like this to increase its cohesion of the entire nation and capture the world attention as a visible player. Meanwhile, the launch could somehow add weight to its bargaining chip in the future Six-Party Talks. Its state media hailed Sunday's launch as a 'historic achievement which enhanced our pride greatly.'
Oppositely, The U.S., along with its Asian allies Japan and South Korea, has pressed for a new round of sanctions against the North, as a result of what Western members called a clear breach of U.N. resolutions. Minutes after the launch, Japan requested the emergency Security Council session in New York. Council members met for three hours but ended with a deadlock, yielding almost nothing, not even a customary statement of condemnation. The council adjourned and members were to continue consultation for an accord.
The focus of concerns seems to have shifted to the liftoff in itself, whether it be placed into orbit or fissile into the Pacific. The blast-off, to some, was enough of a provocative act and posed a menace to regional and global security and should be severely punished. Although the U.S. and Japan had threatened to shoot down what they claimed to be a long-range missile before its launch, they actually had no intention to do so. The U.S., plagued by financial crisis back at home and exhausted by the two battle fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, was incapable of simultaneously handling the problems popping up over the Korea Peninsular.
Japan's Taro Aso has been all along grappling with his plunging approval rates, and could not afford to risk his political career at the sensitive moment. Admittedly, Japan needs the regular pretext of 'Korea threat' to expand its military clout in the region. In this case, it may superficially condemned the 'provocation' from N. Korea, but be secretly overjoyed with the windfall sent by its 'reckless act.'
The neighbor, S. Korea, instead of delivering any message of military threat, just ratcheted up rhetoric this time. The South President Lee Myung-Bak said in a radio address that the act that threatens regional and global security cannot be justified under any circumstances, and promised a 'stern' response to 'provocations.'
But China, Russia, Libya, Uganda and Vietnam called for restraint so as not to increase tensions and endanger the Six-Party Talks on N. Korea's nuclear disarmament. Although the U.N. has been struggling for unity to work out a collective response to N. Korea, the rift seen among its members will make the negotiating process more complicated.
What's more, Pyongyang has showed increased savvy this time in notifying the international community when the launch was coming and what route the rocket would take, and this might water down the potential punishment incurred upon it.
Viewed from the humanitarian concerns, the toughened economic sanctions would worsen the living conditions of millions of already famished people. But it would by no means dissuade North Korea from persisting in its old ways or hereafter force the country to become submissive as the West expected.
On this basis, and in a long run, the Six-Party Talks, in which China acts as a crucial leverage, prove to be the only way-out to prevent the situation of the Korea Peninsular from further deteriorating. After all, peace is the product of good will and mutual trust, which can only be established by peace talks, not through highhandedness.
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