Condi’s Silly Con in Asia

This morning, the NYT reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a joint press conference in Tokyo with Japan’s foreign minister Taro Aso, "The United States has the will and the capability to meet the full range — and I underscore full range — of its deterrent and security commitments to Japan.” This was right after Aso had said, "The government of Japan has no position at all to consider going nuclear. There is no need to arm ourselves with nuclear weapons, either." Okay. Japan doesn’t intend to go nuclear. And Rice says the US can and will employ its full range of deterrent and security commitments to defend Japan against North Korea if the need arises. Sounds good. Until you think about it. Our deterrent and security commitments consist of telling North Korea not to test any more nuclear devices or the US will ask the UN to start doing radiation inspections in Asia’s ports and borders. If North Korea isn’t saying, SO WHAT! I am sure China, South Korea and Moscow have all joined in a hallelujah chorus of SO WHAT! The NYT said in a separate article this morning, “What Secretary Rice will be negotiating this week with Asian countries is how they will ensure that transfers of nuclear and other material do not happen. China, which voted for the United Nations sanctions, says it is committed to putting the resolution into effect.” So what! While China voted for using the sanctions, it also said it has no intention of imposing the sanctions. The NYT went on to say, “The American idea for a new security framework for North Korea as described Tuesday by the State Department official was intended to try to ensure that the country’s suspicious cargo would be inspected in Asia, but in ways that could not be construed as a blockade. “We do not envision this regime as an embargo, as a quarantine or as a blockade,’ said the official, who was accompanying Ms. Rice as she flew from Washington to Asia, with a refueling stop here in Alaska. ‘It is much more selective in nature’ and aimed specifically at materials for manufacturing unconventional weapons, or building missiles to carry them, the official said.” So what! The US has no way to make any of the sanctions happen because the US is powerless to coerce, cajole, intimidate, reason with, or entice these Asian countries into seeing to it that the sanctions are carried out. North Korea issued a statement on Tuesday (using the initials DPRK which is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea): “The D.P.R.K. had remained unfazed in any storm and stress in the past when it had no nuclear weapons. It is quite nonsensical to expect the D.P.R.K. to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state.” According to Agence France-Presse, Chun Yung-woo, South Korea’s top nuclear negotiator, said the statement contained “no surprises,” and was just “the usual rhetoric that they have been using.” The same might be said about Condoleezza Rice and her latest little road show through Asia.