N. Korea must go to Phuket
Published: 29/06/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News
The Kang Nam 1 is a nondescript and mostly typical cargo ship that has become a metaphor for the North Korean regime that owns it. The ship is secretive, the crew refuses to communicate, and the old tub could be carrying highly illegal cargo to an equally recalcitrant dictatorship in Burma. A US navy guided-missile destroyer, operating with full United Nations authority, is trying to determine the goal of the ship and what cargo it is selling. The drama of this flagship of North Korean defiance is moving the entire world’s confrontation with North Korea uncomfortably close to the waters of our region.UN Security Council Resolution 1874 passed unanimously on June 12 after the Kim Jong-il regime tested a nuclear weapon and fired a frightening array of missiles designed to carry nuclear weapons, one of which could easily reach Bangkok. Among other restrictions, the UN enjoined North Korea from all arms exports. It authorised members to follow but not to board North Korean vessels suspected of arms trafficking. The Kang Nam 1 eventually will have to dock, but if it is in the Rangoon port reputedly built by drug traffickers and supported by the Burmese generals, it may never be properly searched.
Burma is a recorded consumer of North Korean arms, and reportedly has become a potential customer of nuclear technology. The junta has been secretive about its own nuclear projects, including activity at an off-limits site in northern Burma. An unauthorised nuclear project, even without weapons capability would pose a serious threat to the ecology of Thailand and the region. But reports are particularly troubling that North Korea re-established diplomatic relations with Burma two years ago with the aim of enmeshing Rangoon in its nuclear trafficking, by building a nuclear reactor like the illegal one it erected in Syria. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Burma soon. He must raise this issue with the Burmese junta. But North Korea must also attend to diplomatic business. In a little over two weeks, Thailand is to host the 16th annual meeting of the Asean Regional Forum in Phuket. The 27-member ARF includes all countries and groups concerned with this region’s military and economic security. That includes, since 2000 when Thailand last hosted the ARF, North Korea.
It is the perfect forum for North Korea to explain its recent actions and lay out its future plans. ARF exists precisely to allow all members to do this, based on the basic truth that openness builds international confidence. This was the goal for Pyongyang when Thailand faced down controversy from fellow ARF members and convinced the Kim Jong-il regime to join the group. But North Korea has predictably treated ARF as more of an inconvenience than an opportunity. Pyongyang has used ARF to make its point at times, but at others it has snubbed the meeting by sending low-level delegates or even by boycotting.
North Korea appears to see itself as a beleaguered nation, abandoned by its perfidious friends like Russia, under siege by enemies like Japan and the United States. In fact, the world including Thailand views North Korea as a dangerous country, addicted to frightening threats of nuclear attacks and weapons trafficking on any scale it chooses. The Phuket meetings, UN forums and other diplomatic channels are the only acceptable methods that North Korea must use to address its problems and negotiate a civilised and non-threatening solution. If the North Korean regime pollutes the world with nuclear testing or unacceptably resorts to violence, it will have to suffer the consequences.
Bangkok Post
