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North Korea's Missile Blackmail Charles R. Smith North Korean Rockets Hit the Wrong Targets America is waking up to a whole new world. The recent firing of North Korean missiles has upset more than one political apple cart. The biggest losers are China and the China lovers in Washington. The pro-Beijing political forces in America, also known as the "Red Team," are embarrassed that China cannot pull in the reins on North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. China warned Kim not to fire missiles and Kim ignored them. The mainstream media and Red Team have pushed China as the ultimate solution to getting Kim Jong-il to join the 21st century. What the Red Team did not want you to know is that Beijing not only has limited influence with Kim, it also does not want to rein in the crazy dictator. China is North Korea's No. 1 ally. China supplies the North with all its fuel and most of its weaponry. China is not likely to change its policy toward Pyongyang. The former second-in-command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Gen. Xiong Guangkai, once remarked that the relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang was the same as "lips are to teeth." China has several reasons for not wanting to change its wayward proxy. First, if Kim is overthrown or leaves power, there is a great potential that a tidal wave of starving Korean refugees will flow across the Chinese border. China may be forced to step in or lose North Korea forever to South Korea. The specter of Chinese troops massing across the Manchurian border and flowing south of the DMZ is a very real threat.
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Secondly, North Korea serves to distract America and Japan. Using others to do your fighting is a common practice, and this sort of proxy war is nothing new to Chinese foreign policy. The logic is simple: Each U.S. carrier battle group pointed at Korea is one less pointed toward protecting Taiwan. Finally, a threat from North Korea allows Beijing to play the "Japan card." The idea again is simple but deadly. It may come as a shock to most Americans, but South Korea is not fond of Tokyo. Japan is viewed in unfavorable terms on the Asian mainland because of the brutal occupation before and during World War II. Beijing can use a re-armed Japan as a foil to play upon the fears of its own people and other Asian nations. Despite its differences with Kim, China is not likely to do much other than pay lip service toward finding a solution on the Korean peninsula. The most recent effort in the U.N. to get China on track is going nowhere fast. North Korea's Strategic Partner Beijing's lack of assistance does not help its allies here in America. The U.S.-based Red Team continues to hold out hope that Beijing will put a muzzle on Pyongyang. However, after months of fruitless negotiations, it is apparent to even the most die-hard Panda hugger that China is going to do nothing.
This conclusion is frustrating the pro-China crowd in the Bush administration. They can hardly call Beijing a good global partner if it continues to be a strategic ally to North Korea. There is good reason to distrust any talking solution to the missile crisis. North Korea has not been very nice in recent years. Some in the Red Team still cling to the notion that being nice to brutal dictators is the only way to solve problems. This solution has not worked with Kim and will never work. Kim stuck the Clinton administration with the bill after years of talk, dancing, wining and dining the dopey State Department diplomats hired by the boy president. In 1994, Clinton sent Jimmy Carter to negotiate. Jimmy solved the crisis by declaring that there was no crisis as long as we sent Kim money. Yet, even before Carter got back to D.C., Kim had already cashed the U.S. aid checks and restarted his nuclear weapons program. Madam Albright called Kim "charming" and danced with him – as if there was nothing to resolve. Kim's tactics worked very well with the Clintonoids. The years of chatting about solving the crisis gave him time to develop long-range missiles and nuclear weapons. In 1998, Clinton misled the American public and Congress, getting the Pentagon's top general and the CIA to both attest that North Korea could not get a missile together for at least 10 to 15 years. Only weeks after the chairman of the Joint Chiefs testified before Congress, Kim shot a Tae'Po Dong missile over Japan, with bits and pieces falling just short of the U.S. coast. Missile Defense The North Korean shot-heard-round-the-world leads me to the second list of losers – the missile-defense opponents. The anti-anti-missile crowd pooh-poohed Reagan's "Star Wars" concept, declaring that it was not necessary and could never be achieved. This crowd includes former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who also echoed the 1998 CIA report as if it were gospel. Of course, missiles being lobbed out of North Korea in our general direction gave rise to the concept that perhaps a defense was needed after all. President Bush did the right thing by establishing a missile defense and after the recent firings of seven missiles by Pyongyang, there is a movement to increase our defense. The missile defense gives America and her allies a list of good options. First, we don't have to launch a first strike against Kim and his missiles. This option prevents war in Korea and may save a few million Koreans from dying. Another result of the recent North Korean missile firings is a sudden desire by U.S. Asian allies to build their own offensive forces. To many, the two choices are either submit to North Korean blackmail or build nuclear weapons. This bitter choice faced by Seoul and Tokyo means more atomic weapons and expanded political unrest. Instead, President Bush has given our Pacific allies a third, non-nuclear, option to join us in a missile defense. The brilliant move gives Japan and South Korea a way of defending themselves against North Korea without having to take up nuclear arms. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) under Kim has engaged in some of the most heinous crimes and global proliferation, ranging from kidnapping and counterfeiting U.S. currency to terrorism and murder. For example, Australia currently holds several DPRK diplomats caught smuggling heroin into the land down under. The DPRK is also a prime source of tons of illegal methamphetamines to Asia. North Korea has also sold missile technology to Pakistan, Libya, Iran, Saddam's Iraq, Taliban Afghanistan, and Syria. The DPRK sold nuclear weapons technology to Libya, Iran, and Pakistan. The answer to the problem of North Korea does not lie with diplomacy and praying that China will help. The Chinese will not help, because it is in their interest to keep Kim in power and divert American attention from Taiwan. The answer is to improve and expand our missile defense. Congress needs to act and move onto adding a space-based radar so we can have early warning against possible attacks. More non-nuclear interceptors need to be added inside America and on U.S. Navy warships. The only other choice is to submit to missile blackmail and pray that appeasement will delay war one more day.
Editor's note:
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