Reports coming out of Russia are real cause for concern. As The Independent has reported in the last couple of hours, there appears to be a mass exodus of North Korean workers from Russia's Far East.
The paper quotes the Vladnews agency as saying:
'Traders have left the kiosks and markets, workers have abandoned building sites, and North Korean secret service employees working in the region have joined them and left.'
The news comes as China works to reduce tensions in what VOA News described as a 'flurry of diplomatic activity.' The Chinese effort has been kicking into gear just ahead of joint military exercises between South Korean and US forces that are set to start Sunday.
China is concerned that the planned war games, which will include the USS George Washington, will aggravate tensions further following North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island.
The fact is, though, that North Korea is well aware that these exercises have been planned for some time. The ball is therefore largely in its court. It can choose to escalate this further -- it can, in effect, choose to feel threatened -- or it can take a step back.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her part has been urging China to send a signal to Pyongyang, with the State Department stating that she had pressed her Chinese counterpart to 'make clear' that North Korea's actions are 'unacceptable'.
There's been a great deal of speculation about possible motivations and who in North Korea stands to benefit from the latest belligerence. If it chooses war though, I'll be hard-pressed to think of anyone that comes out of this well.
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hogsatemysister
To quote Sir Charles Barkley (and others) “Somebody hits me, I’m going to hit him back. Even if he does look like he hasn’t eaten in a while.” http://bit.ly/eeDJLg
John Chan
@hogsatemysister, thank you much for the education from the link you provided. From the sayings of those famous guys in the link, I finally learnt the western culture in its bare and naked form, the West knows no compassion, no mercy, only brutality. I will spread the words for you.
Wataru
True, NK has known about these “exercises” for some time, but they have also been expressing their dismay about them for as long a time. The war games are just more needless provocation, as were the on-going S.Korean exercises in disputed waters, so close to the NK border, that led to the recent attack. Both the US and SK know they are playing with fire, egging NK on. China is also right to have asked them to stop. It would have been wise to call them off and begin the kind of direct negotiation NK is asking for. But as I write, the games have begun. If they lead to war, the blame will not be entirely on the North.
Sage
I would certainly not want to be seen to defend the US and its foreign policy or it’s military muscle flexing, however rightly or wrongly joint military exercises happen all the time and cannot justifiably provoke another state into War or offensive action. On the other hand the unprovoked sinking of a military ship leading to deaths of 46 seamen in March, and an unprovoked hour-long bombardment of a South Korean village resulting in the death of 4 civilians is as close to justifying war as anything imaginable. There is only one side here who looks saintly and righteous and it isn’t the North. I am afraid the North will be solely to blame for any fallout as to bow to their pressure and brinkmanship would be a grave mistake in the long game.
Tired
It is incredulous that Mr Jason Miks completely ignore the fact that the US/South Korean war games have a role to play in this escalation.
Some “journalist” you are.
jay
you are too tired to think straight.
Read the article again after sleeping 8 hours.
A soldier
I have been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. We are viewed as weak and inefficient as a super power due to PC and ROEs that are very harmful, non realistic and only encourage the enemy. Although I hope another war does not break out, sometimes you have to make an example out of a country with a dictator who only throws temper tantrums when he wants something. When that dictator does get what he wants, only he and the military benefit. The common people still suffer. We need to quit pussy footing around with ALL terrorist and tyrants and be a true super power like we once were. Let us SOLDIERS do our job, unhidered, with out the media and without PC binding our hands. Let us fight with our allies and be respected by all countries as were before. I am not a war monger, but I do believe that there has to be a real distaste for war by all people (to include the US). The only way that will be accoplished is to have a war that is so violent, deadly and costly that all countries will think twice, three , four time before going down this path again. Yes history does repeat itself, only because we forget what has happened in the past and to be reminded. I am a 39 yr. old soldier (with a family) and I speak only from expirience and from a totally brutal and honest point of view.
rockne1865
They build Nukes & sell weapons & Tech to anyone with money! North Korea is a rouge state always has been. the US is often wrong (Iraq being 1 example), But not this time! These war games also send a message to the Chinese will will not abandon our allies at the drop of the hat!
mareo2
There is an old and wise proverb:
“…strike while the iron is hot…”
The next leader of the DPRK, is the young and inexperienced Kim Jong Un. If the ROK step back now, the future ruler is going to become convinced that wha this father do is right and the DPRK can kill south korean civilians in broad daylight with total impunity for demand more food.
bono
I hate all you morons who say it;s the US and SK who push and provoke the north!!! SK were firing shells WEST from their base on Yeonpyeong island which is in THEIR side of the line, there was NO reason for NK to attack SK and KILL INNOCENT CIVILIANS!!! Why shouldn’t US show support for their allies who were needlessly attacked? NK should consider themselves lucky that SK and US show such restraint when they could infact bomb them off the face of the planet!!!
John
Watura and Tired,
Military actions are part of the spectrum of communications we call “diplomacy.” North Korea regulary stops communicating like other nations do and uses military force, knowing that South Korea and the U.S. will not respond at their level of provocation.
Exercises and a “show of force” that do not directly target North Korean military targets and civilian can never equate to killing South Korean military and civilians. What book or philosophy are you using?
You are basically condoning North Korea’s continued use of childish tantrums, including use of excessive military force, to achieve its goals. What other country dares to attack and then say “If you counterattack, it will be all out war!” It’s like a bully hitting another boy and saying, “If you dare to hit me back, I’ll beat the crap out of you!” North Korea is simply a bully pushing his weight around until someone teaches them that this does not work with everyone.
I’m sure your level of condemnation would rise to even higher levels if the U.S. or South Korea had responded to a North Korean exercise (which are continously ongoing) in a similar manner- i.e., destroy North Korean homes and civilians. In a tit for tat exchange, South Korea and the US have the destructive power to win and have been exercising restraint by holding back for decades, while North Korea’s provocations have continued to get worse. Maybe the time for restraint has finally passed.
lazerhead
Dear soldier.To let you do your job unhindered as you say would be insane and as for having another blood bath no thanks.We know the results of WW1 & 2.We created the United Nations to try to create pathways to peace and negotiation.It is not perfect but the hell of war brought us there.
Puddle Jumper
As another ex-soldier I can say that when it comes to the use of military force your Generals and Soldiers are the experts. What is insane is a politician committing troops and then trying to micromanage what they do. It would be the same as a computer techie who knows nothing about cars trying to tell an auto mechanic how to fix his car. This was what lost us the Viet Nam War. I am glad that people remember the results of the last two world wars. It seems though that they dont remember what caused them. If Germany had been confronted directly over its aggresson instead of other countries trying to appease it and look the other way perhaps WW2 would not have happened. Diplomacy has its place and time but cannot always work. Thats why we have a military.
John Chan
This article “http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2010/06/11/War-The-big-dog-doesnt-always-win.aspx” will make the American (the US) understand themselves better. Your rhetoric is totally against the wishes of the founding fathers of the USA.
John Chan
@Puddle Jumper. military is for self defence, not for aggression, that’s why countries call their military organization Department of Defence. Only warmongers and fanatics like Nazi, Japan and the US use military for aggression. I guess you must be ashamed of the US soldiers died in Vietnam and Korea. No wonder the monuments for those soldiers are so obscure and low key in the US. After having some live fire exercises in the desert, you are already bragging that the US military is almighty and invincible. Both in Korea and Vietnam, the US Military enjoyed overwhelming advantages in firing power and military technology, but they were defeated by enemies who fought for their believes and were determined. In history the will of the defender always defeats an arrogant invader. Rambo is only a Hollywood movie, maybe The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now are the ones you should watch more often, so you can remember well the fear in the eyes of the GIs when they encountered determined defenders. If the civilian in the US cannot keep a lid on the solders like you, Armageddon for humanity will be arrived in the next 24 hours on this earth.
Jay
@ John Chan -
Are you from a peaceful country? Are there any peaceful countries? China has never been a peaceful country to live in, even when they weren’t at war with their neighbors, internal conflict made the lives of the common people hell for most of the last 5000 years.
North Korea has been making the lives of their citizens hell for almost the entire time since the cessation of conflict.
Do you support North Korea?
Should every country be able to do as they wish with their people?
Shouldn’t deliberately allowing millions of your own people starve to death be a crime against all humanity?
I believe it is a crime against humanity to uncaringly let millions die for your political ideals.
The truth is a quick hard war, toppling the North Korean government would save lives compared to letting their own government starve its people for the next 50 years.
Every one of those soldiers that fights for the North Korean motherland has friends and family that have starved under the current regime – they may shout their support loudly in a group, but every one of them believes that life could be better than it is now.
John Chan
Dear Jay, since you are so upset by my comment, I assume you are an American (the US). In the short history of USA, wherever the US goes there is death, maimed, rape, destruction, corruption… Atrocity never leaves the US. What you so self righteously believe is no different from what the North Koreans believe. The North Korean could just look at you with puzzle like you look at them, it is matter of perspective. Whatever is happening in Korea now, it’s a matter between the Koreans, it has nothing to do with others unless who has untold agenda to benefit from the misfortune of the Koreans.
Since when the US solve anything by quick war? Even the trigger happy generals in Pentagon won’t dare brag what you have said. They know that war in North Korea will make wars in Iraqi and Afghanistan a walk in the park.
Jay, the root of the problems as you see it caused by the arrogance, self-righteous and ignorance of the West, and their specious sense of morality, it makes the West just unable to stand aside and let other people to sort out their own problems. The busy body mentality of the West only brings destruction and misery to the world.
Jay, this site is about presenting different opinions. Somebody who does not agree with the opinions of the bigots does not mean they support Kim Dynasty of North Korea.
I think the West best to spend their energy, money and resources to help their own citizens who are suffering due to the financial meltdown in the West.
Jay
Let me simply quote you and change the name of the country in your quote, to see if your remarks now strike you as reasonable.
“Since you’re so upset by my remarks, you must be Chinese (PRC).”
“Only warmongers and fanatics like Nazi, Japan and China use military for aggression.”
“In the long history of China, wherever China goes there is death, maimed, rape, destruction, corruption… Atrocity never leaves China.”
Suffering due to the financial meltdown is nothing compared to starving to death.
John Chan
@Jay, since your screen name can’t let me address your accusation properly, so I only can respond to your comment on a assumed target. Perhaps you can use a screen name more appropriate to where you come from to facilitate better discussion on this site.
Yes, you can change the name of the country in my quote to make a point, but is it true? China has not been in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Nicaragua …, only USA has been there, and look at the amount of death, maimed, rape, destruction, corruption… Atrocity in those countries brought by the US.
If the US continues its current reckless fiscal course, pretty soon there will be only empty shelves in the US supermarkets.
The following videos tell you what the concerned US citizens are doing to save their beloved nation instead of carrying burning hate like you toward scapegoats like China. Please watch these videos, it will make you a better man, and make peace with yourself as well as the world.
“The Crash Course” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WuQ5-t3xM&NR=1
“End of Liberty” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQv-sdMCClQ
Jay
@ John Chan
1 – Jay is not only my ’screen name’ – it is my real name. Did your parents name you ‘John’?
2 – Wow you really have very conveniently forgotten history.
China HAS been in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, AND parts of India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Vietnam, Laos, the whole Korean peninsula, and parts of Russia. The amount of rape, death, thievery, destruction, and corruption was not written down, because most of the people were killed… and those who survived were desperate to stay alive, not to spend their time writing.
True, China hasn’t visited destruction on Nicaragua or Somalia… yet. Give it another 400 years. In the past, China demanded tribute from all the weaker nations around it, and humans being humans, they will again in the future, in the form of bribes to get business and construction contracts, most likely.
Mao Zedong allowed 14 million, or perhaps up to 43 million to die in the famine of the Great Leap forward.
Has the US come even close to that Great Leader’s example? NO. Much less the millions more killed in China’s looooooooong history of wars.
China is not a scapegoat, I’m only bringing China up because you’re saying that the USA is evil. Compared with China’s bloody history, the USA is a pure angel.
Don’t conveniently ignore history.
John Chan
Since Hillary Clinton declared the US was back to Asia, the situation in Asia is getting volatile by the day. The scale of killings only started on Lee Myung-Bak’s term, not on all previous presidents of SK. Does Lee has any compassion for his poor compatriots in the North while SK is enjoying abundant wealth and prosperity? The US is creating international incidents to divert attention from financial troubles at home, but why the SK is so willingly to put their lives on the firing line for the US to play its reckless political game? It is beyond comprehension.
milton
Any mafia don would know to allow the attack by a rival to go unanswered is the fastest way to be attacked by everyone.
The only way the US will regain the “respect” (with little “r”) of the world is to completely, totally, absolutely wipe out the nuclear facilities of North Korea. And if this means a nuclear war, with China, so be it.
“It is better to be feared than loved.”
Machiavelli
Unfortunately, the US is led by a coward.
DaveT383
@ lazerhead – hooray for cooler heads. I happen to live in Seoul, and all these people who think a military response is the correct solution, tell you what, have a war in your yard, not mine. The north does want talks, direct talks with SK and the US to come to an agreement to end the the 1950-53 war, a peace treaty that recognizes their sovereignty. Sure, Kim Jong-Il is a whack job, no doubt about it, but the country is going to implode on its own. No one needs a repeat of 1950-53 with millions upon millions of people dying. War is not the answer and never has been, it just happens to be what the US does best. Sadly. It was founded upon some pretty sound ideals that have been lost along the way.
Liberty N
Then the very reason the Americans still being in South Korea and Japan today is just for imperialist ambitions to control and dominate the whole Pacific Asia only for serving its own national interests?! If so, we have to rewrite the history like this:
“In 1950, the American imperialists and its puppet’s army, South Korea’s suddenly crossed the 38th parallel to invade the North Korea, a peaceful country in order to achieve its imperialist ambition to enslave the Koreans as well as all other peace-loving peoples in the Pacific- Asian! Thanks to the bravery and determination of the Korean people under the leadership of the divine Dear Leader, together with the invaluable assistance of the brotherly Great China (via one million volunteer fighters), North Korea has defeated and repulsed the Americans and its puppet’s army away to protect successfully its people and its sovereign integrity against these cruel invaders! Since then, the American Imperialists and its puppet regime in the south have never ceased its evil subversive plot to take over the peaceful DPRK!”
Then, finally the South (not the North) Korea becomes the “buffer zone” and the ‘bargain chip’ of the Americans in the regional power negotiation with the great China??!! It sounds familiar, doesn’t it?!
John Chan
You don’t need to rewrite the history; you presented what has actually happened as far as the camp against the US camp in the Korea War is concerned. If one count the version supported by the number of heads as truth, the US camp lost by 1:2 margin. The US camp has been lying all along the other camp would say.
If Harry Truman dared to wring in generalissimo Douglas MacArthur from marching the US troops all the way to the Yalu River, sending aeroplanes into China, urging Taiwan to attack China, and publicly yelling to nuke China, China won’t respond by sending troops into Korea to defend the survival of the new regime. Instead of sending scarce resources into the wasteland of war, China could use those resources to rebuild a land torn by wars in the last 150 years. On top of that it took decades for China to repay the USSR for the weapons it used in the Korea War. Thanks for the big help from the US again.
China is always wary the real motives of the Russia bear due to the suffering it experienced from Russian aggression, the US did Russia a big favour by shoving China under its claws via Korean War.
Unless the US can look at itself in the mirror and review the history objectively, the US will continue to whine bitterly that the world has been mistreating it.
James B
@ John Chan,
It’s so sad that your version of history is far different from what actually have happened in reality! Maybe it just belongs to another planet faraway from this earthly world!
“On June 25, 1950 at 4 am, North Korean infantry with the support of hundreds of Soviet-made tanks, T34s, crossed the 38th parallel, after showers of artillery barrage bombarding the South Korean army positions,initiated the bloody war to invade the South (1950-53)!” And the rest of the story everyone’s already known!
Perhaps, China should need some more Liu Xiaobo to fix its prism through which it looks out to the outside world!!