DATE=8/25/1999
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=THE NORTH KOREAN MISSILE THREAT
NUMBER=6-11438
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: For weeks now, U-S intelligence sources have
been warning that North Korea is poised to test launch
the latest in a series of regional and long-range
missiles. This latest rocket, called the Taepo Dong
Two, has an estimated range of 37-hundred miles, and
possibly more, which means it could hit Alaska and
Hawaii with poison gas, nuclear bombs or biological
agents.
This is raising concern not only with the Clinton
administration, to say nothing of the Japanese and
South Korea governments, but also in the U-
S press. We get a further sampling of editorial
comment on the threat from Pyongyang and how to deal
with it now from _____________ in today's U-S Opinion
Roundup.
TEXT: Late last year, Japan and the United States
were startled when North Korea launched its Taepo Dong
missile out over the Sea of Japan and Japan's
northernmost island. Pyongyang said the rocket
carried a small satellite.
But western military analysts worried that the 925-
mile range of the first Taepo Dong missile could carry
a nuclear, biological or chemical warhead anywhere in
Japan or South Korea and so, dramatically unsettled
the defense picture of Northern Asia.
Now, with a missile roughly three times as powerful,
and supposedly ready for launching, concern has
intensified.
As several U-S daily newspapers see it, North Korea is
using the threat of launching this medium-to-long-
range missile as a kind of international blackmail.
None of them approve. We begin first in Tacoma,
Washington, where The News Tribune ran this column by
a pair of just-returned Washington Post reporters.
Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan for four years, did
their best to penetrate the bamboo curtain around
North Korea by talking to everyone they could who had
left, and by often visiting the Chinese and South
Korean border regions with North Korea. They paint a
bleak picture.
VOICE: North Korea is the center of one of the most
sophisticated surveillance stakeouts in world history.
. But in the end, one of the world's most menacing
little empires is still unknown. It might have a
nuclear bomb or two; it might not. It might be crazy
enough to use them; it might not. Despite the
relentless scrutiny, nobody knows why President Kim
Jong Il runs his country [as he does]. . According
to the best estimates of international relief groups,
two million to three million North Koreans have died
of malnutrition and disease-in mountains and villages
not a three-hour flight from Tokyo. We couldn't get
in to write about or photograph their plight for the
kind of media coverage that has helped mobilize the
world in response to African famines.
The rest of Asia may be wiring up for the digital age,
but the 20-million North Koreans run the risk of being
jailed for flipping on a radio that can pick up
foreign broadcasts. They don't have enough to eat.
They don't have anesthesia for surgery. They are
hostages-unable to speak their mind or to learn of the
outside world under penalty of death. And the outside
world largely has chosen to look aside.
TEXT: Regarding concessions North Korea wants from the
West in return for n o t firing this latest missile,
The Los Angeles Times says: "Say No."
VOICE: The word from North Korea is that it is ready
to negotiate with "hostile nations"-meaning the United
States, Japan and South Korea-about calling off its
test of a new long-range missile, a prospect that has
heightened tensions in northeast Asia. The unspoken
condition in Pyongyang's offer is that it expects to
be suitably rewarded. Once again, North Korea seeks
to leverage a strategic threat to extort further
concessions from those it views as its primary
enemies. That ploy has paid off handsomely in the
past. This time it should be unequivocally rejected.
TEXT: In the Midwest, The Chicago Tribune calls what
North Korea is doing "blackmail" and suggests the
response will be increased military buildups by Japan,
South Korea and the United States.
VOICE: Like a bratty, child who would rather get in
trouble than be ignored, the Stalinist regime that
rules North Korea is always looking for ways to get
the world's' attention. It has found a good one in
its preparations to test-fire a new long-range missile
that could fly over Japan on its way to Alaska or
Hawaii. . The expected test is more likely to spur
the United States, Japan and South Korea to bolster
their defenses and retreat from efforts to work
constructively with the Pyongyang government. The new
weapon would have only a modest effect on the military
balance. Japan and South Korea are already within
reach of shorter-range missiles, and if North Korea
really wants to pick a fight with the world's only
superpower, it has plenty of other options. But for
anyone looking for signs that North Korea will never
abandon its belligerent intransigence toward the
outside world, the test provides grim proof.
TEXT: In Texas, The Houston Chronicle is adamant that
no one should give concessions to Pyongyang to
postpone the launch.
VOICE: North Korea appears to be using the threat of
test-firing its long-range Taepo Dong Two missile --
which for the first time would give the Stalinist
regime the capability to strike Alaska and Hawaii --
as a bargaining chip to win more economic and
political concessions from the United Japan and South
Korea. Unfortunately, any bargain agreed to will
accrue to the long-term benefit of North Korea, while
leaving leaders in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul to
wonder what provocation the North Koreans will try
next, certain only that it will be something. . The
fact is there are no easy answers in dealing with the
North Koreans. Limited concessions, such as those
granted five years ago, perhaps were worth a chance in
hopes they would succeed in changing the rogue nation.
But further concessions, in light of past experience,
need to be weighed very carefully so as not to
encourage future North Korean misadventures.
TEXT: On that note, we conclude this sampling of
editorial comment on the continuing threat of a North
Korean medium-to-long-range missile launch.
NEB/ANG/JO
25-Aug-1999 15:37 PM EDT (25-Aug-1999 1937 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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