North Korea test-fires short-range missiles
US voices concern, but analysts say test was a 'performance check,' not saber rattling.
North Korea
launched two short-range missiles in a weapons test on Wednesday.
The Associated Press reports that the surface-to-air missiles were launched near North Korea's border with China. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the US had independent confirmation that the missiles were fired. A South Korean military intelligence official confirmed the test as well.
North Korea began a moratorium on missile tests in 2003, but it has test-fired short-range missiles several times since, including one launched into the Sea of Japan in May 2005.
The South Korean newspaper
Chosun Ilbo reports that the White House called the missile firing "a
clear indication of the need to address regional security concerns posed by North Korea."
But
Reuters reports that regional analysts
disagreed with the Bush administration, saying that the test-firings were more about "checking performance" than they were about saber rattling.
"We attach significance to it (the test) because it has the words 'North Korea' and 'missile'," Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank based in Hawaii, said by telephone. "The North Koreans would be happy for us to attach a political message but I am not sure that was their intention."
Cossa did not think the test was intended as North Korean saber-rattling to coincide with the talks between US Treasury officials and senior North Korean diplomat Ri Gun over Washington's suspicions about North Korean illicit activities such as counterfeiting and drug trafficking. "Both sides want to demonstrate that they are not the problem," Cossa said.
The
Associated Press also indicated that the missile test-firing, which some reports say was
pointed toward China, was likely not intended as a political message.
North Korea would be extremely hesitant to do anything to offend China, its last major benefactor, and the type of missiles reportedly fired wouldn't pose much of a threat far beyond its borders. Despite remaining technically at war with South Korea, the sides have embarked on reconciliation efforts since a 2000 summit between their leaders, and many South Koreans don't view the North as a threat. The US remains concerned about North Korea's missile capabilities, however.
Reuters reports that the head of the US military in South Korea told a Congressional committee Tuesday that the North is "set to deploy ballistic missiles that
could reach Alaska and remains a global security threat despite its failing economy."
"Reports indicate North Korea is also preparing to field a new intermediate range ballistic missile which could easily reach United States facilities in Okinawa, Guam, and possibly Alaska," Gen. B.B. Bell, commander of the US Forces Korea, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. In a prepared statement, the leader of more than 30,000 US troops in South Korea included the missiles among North Korean threats such as a huge conventional army, 100,000 special forces and 250 long-range artillery systems that have Seoul, the South's capital, within range. General Bell said that although North Korea's economy is in trouble, the regime's policy of "military first" means that it has "continued significant investment in asymmetric capabilities that include nuclear weapons programs, special operations forces, missiles, and weapons of mass destruction"
Voice of America reports that the South Korean government
decided to keep quiet about the missile tests, wishing to preserve its improving relationship with the North.
Kim Dae-woo – an analyst at Seoul's Korea Institute for Defense Analyses – says it was probably just part of regularly scheduled short-range missile drills.
"Even North Koreans themselves will believe that [this] is a minor thing and nobody will think it serious," said Kim. "If North Korea tested a large-size [long range] missile, that could be interpreted differently."
The
US State Department also issued its
annual list of human rights violators Wednesday and named North Korea as one of the most systematic abusers of human rights.
In 2005 the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) remained one of the world's most isolated countries. The systematically repressive regime continued to control almost all aspects of citizens' lives, denying freedoms of speech, religion, the press, assembly, association, and movement, as well as workers' rights. In December 2005, the regime further receded into isolation by calling for significant drawdowns of the international nongovernmental organization (NGO) presence in the country. But Jim Lobe of
Inter Press Service says the State Department document
does not deal with allegations of abuse at "Guantanamo Bay naval base and in Afghanistan where Washington has been holding suspects in its 'war on terror' in conditions that some human-rights monitors, including several UN special rapporteurs, have said amount to 'torture.' "
That omission has been cited by critics as evidence of hypocrisy and double standards. "This report by the US government provides a thorough review of today's human rights practices around the globe, except for one glaring omission – its own record," said William Schulz, director of the US section of Amnesty International.
"The United States government considers itself a moral leader on human rights issues, but its record of indefinite and arbitrary detentions, secret 'black sites' and outsourced torture in the 'war on terror' turns it from leader to human rights violator," said Schulz.
But while not naming US forces specifically, the document does note, in the section on Afghanistan, that "NGOs reported that
security forces used excessive force during their fight against Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants, including looting, beating, and torturing civilians. Violence and instability hampered relief and reconstruction efforts in different parts of the country and led to numerous human rights abuses."
Also...
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Blaming the victims as Iraq disintegrates (Asia Times)
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Olmert says he will set Israel's borders in four years (Mail and Guardian, South Africa)
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