Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=2/27/03

TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=KOREA'S "INAUGURATION" MISSILE

NUMBER=6-12843

BYLINE=Andrew Guthrie

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Assignments

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: Often times, when neighboring nations hold presidential inaugurations, nearby nations send diplomatic delegations, or messages of support, or maybe flowers. But when South Korea swore in a new president this week, North Korea sent a missile splashing into the Sea of Japan. That got the attention of the global press as we learn now from V-O-A's ______________ in this week's World Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: South Korea's new president, a former human rights lawyer, Roh Moo-hyun was sworn in Tuesday. He failed to mention the short range North Korean missile in his address, but he did say that "the suspicion that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons poses a grave threat to world peace." He added that if North Korea abandons its nuclear weapons efforts, it could win additional international aid.

A good many newspapers around the world, especially those in Asia, are taking very seriously Pyongyang's increasingly bellicose behavior, especially its resurrection of a nuclear weapons program. In fact, after the missile firing, the North officially reopened its Yongbyon nuclear facility which U-S officials say can be used to provide small amounts of weapons-grade plutonium.

We begin our sampling in Asia, where Australia's Financial Review is disturbed.

VOICE: Whether North Korea fired a short range Silkworm missile or a longer range weapon is beside the point. What matters is that North Korea, at the height of the Iraq crisis, fired a missile in violation of its self-imposed moratorium as South Korea prepared to swear in its new President. Pyongyang's bellicosity is a real and ongoing threat.

TEXT: Turning to China, there was a bit of skepticism in The Global Times, an official Communist Party publication, which questioned:

VOICE: Why did the U-S announce resuming the aid program [to North Korea] immediately after the missile incident? Some people say that in order to make all efforts to deal with Iraq, the U-S has started to adopt a policy of pacification toward [North Korea.]

TEXT: Turning to that portion of China with a more free press, the Macau Special Administrative Region, we read in the Macau Daily News:

VOICE: Both before and after the visit, [U-S Secretary of State Colin] Powell avoided Pyongyang's request for direct negotiations with the U-S by insisting that the North Korea issue should be resolved in cooperation among the U-S, Japan and South Korea, following the U-N and multilateral frameworks to include these countries.

TEXT: In South China's neighboring Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, the well-known South China Morning Post was not impressed.

VOICE: Talk about a rude welcome. Hours before South Korea's new president was to be sworn in, North Korea test fired a missile into the Sea of Japan. Although the weapon was a short range conventional missile which no one saw as strategically alarming, the incident was timed to be as provocative as possible.

TEXT: Moving on to Japan, the Tokyo daily Sankei focused on the talks surrounding the inauguration.

VOICE: [President] Roh and [Japanese Prime Minister] Koizumi agreed on the need to coordinate policies (among the U-S, Japan and South Korea) to deal with the North's nuclear brinkmanship. Policy coordination should be strengthened further until the North gives up on its nuclear programs. We do not believe the "sunshine" policy that Mr. Roh took over [Editors: we would say "inherited" here] from former President Kim Dae Jung will work wonders as long as Kim Jong Il is in power.

TEXT: Moving on to South Korea itself, Chosun Ilbo in Seoul also focused on what the new president said.

VOICE: President Roh Moo-hyun stressed transparency with regard to his "Peace and Prosperity" approach to North Korea and noted that the North's nuclear development was a threat to world peace. In addition, he urged the North to choose between nuclear development and peace, security, and economic assistance. This is quite a positive and remarkable development.

TEXT: Across town, Joon-Ang Ilbo has a slightly different view.

VOICE: Mr. Roh's position that North Korea must not possess nuclear weapons and that the nuclear crisis should be resolved peacefully might appear contradictory, but there is no other choice for us. In this regard, it is appropriate for Mr. Roh to express his intent to enhance [South Korea's] cooperation with the U-S and Japan.

TEXT: In Europe, Germany's big Sueddeutsche Zeitung in Munich got a surprise out of the missile firing.

VOICE: On the day of President [Roh's] inauguration, the dictator from the North is sending greetings per missile, but it [the firing] did not reach the provocative level of the missile fired in 1998. That missile test was considered a clear demonstration of the strategic significance of North Korea's missile technology.

North Korea provokes others, mixes up facts, and raises absurd accusation for one goal only: to get attention. It is now mainly up to Washington to show this attention without creating the impression of being blackmailed.

TEXT: And lastly to Spain, where Madrid's La Vanguardia notes:

VOICE: The circumstances under which Roh Moo Hyun took office are considerably worse [than that of his predecessor] because of the increasingly belligerent attitude of its uncomfortable, nuclearized and impoverished northern neighbor. What does North Korea want?

TEXT: With that rhetorical question from Spain's big Vanguardia in Madrid, we conclude this editorial sampling of the world's press on the inauguration of South Korea's new president.

NEB/ANG/RH