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War games in Asia Pacific
The United States and South Korea believe that it’s time for war games in the Asia Pacific. Their endeavour to stage second joint military exercises in less than a month has fuelled tensions. Moreover, it has drawn ire from China and Russia, who view this brinkmanship with utmost concern. North Korea, which for quite some time had been seriously weighing the option of getting back to the negotiating table, has warned that through such intimidation tactics it can’t be cowed down.
The result is likely to be a zero sum outcome, whereby Washington and Seoul can only keep their fingers crossed once they are done with fanfare and jingoism on the high seas of China, leaving Pyongyang open to retaliate in whatsoever manner in deems fit to choose.
This muscle flexing, involving about 30,000 US and 56,000 South Korean soldiers, has come at a time when North Korea was under pressure for allegedly torpedoing Seoul’s vessel, Cheonan, in March. Dubbed as one of the largest joint staff directed theatre exercises in the world, it is bound to draw a response from the reclusive leadership. Pyongyang has already termed it as a ‘dangerous act to light the fuse of a new war’. This war-mongering politics is, indeed, a setback to considerate efforts that have been underway in the region for quite some time. Apart from covert diplomacy to win over the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-Il, to agree for a disarmament deal and to once again open up his clandestine nuclear programme for inspections, China was irresistibly campaigning to bring it on board through a sustained economic cooperation package. These exercises will inevitably go a long way in compelling Pyongyang to go back on its promised peace-gestures, and resort to a vibrant tit-for-tat policy. Similarly, the reported political succession plans in the Stalinist state might also get delayed, as Pyongyang would not like to bring to fore its immature leadership at a time when it faces graves issues of peace and security.
The volatile region can neither withstand confrontation nor a surge in tension. The nuclear race along with the fantasy of both Seoul and Pyongyang to test missiles off and on in the Sea of China is worrisome for the entire region. These war exercises might not only impact an uneasy peace prevailing in the region, but also the economic recovery underway in Japan and Southeast Asia. It is the height of imprudence on the part of Washington to play with fire in a region where both the peninsula countries are perpetually in a state of war for the last six decades. Rather than bringing warships to the region, the US would have been better advised to reach the starving North Koreans by doing away with sanctions. To say the least, these exercises have not only delayed the reunification process but also raised the stakes for Pyongyang to get more radical.
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