Rice Tries To Prevent Asian Arms Race
In Japan To Discuss Implementation Of N. Korea Sanctions
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Play CBS Video Video Rice To Talk With Allies Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tokyo for talks with U.S. allies amid growing evidence that North Korea might launch a second nuclear test. Allen Pizzey reports.
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Video More North Korean Nuke Tests? As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seeks to pressure North Korea's neighbors to enforce sanctions, there are indications the North is preparing for more nuclear tests. David Martin reports.
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Video North Korea Talks Tough Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is on her way to Asia for a four-nation visit amid worries that North Korea may be preparing to conduct a second nuclear test. Aleen Sirgany reports.
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(AP / CBS)
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, meets with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso at the Foreign Ministry's Iikura guesthouse in Tokyo, on Wednesday October 18, 2006. (AP Photo/Pool)
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North Koreans participate in a torchlight parade in Pyongyang to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the "Down-with-Imperialism Union" in this image taken from North Korean TV on Oct. 17, 2006. (AP)
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North Korean soldiers carrying the North Korean flag and shovels march on the outskirts of the city of Sinuiju along the borders it shares with the Chinese city of Dandong, Oct. 16, 2006. (AP Photo)
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A demonstration of the right way to put on gas masks, at a civil defense drill in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 16, 2006. (AP)
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Interactive N. Korea: Tests And Threats Follow recent events and learn about this secretive nation's nuclear capabilities.
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Rice also reaffirmed Washington's commitment to the defense of Japan, its top ally in the region and home to 50,000 U.S. troops. North Korea's nuclear test last week has raised concerns of an arms race in the region.
"The United States has no desire to escalate this crisis. We would like to see it de-escalate," Rice told reporters in a joint news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso. "This is not a blockade or a quarantine," she added, referring to the U.N. sanctions.
Aso, meanwhile, reiterated that Japan had no plans to develop a nuclear weapons. Many fear that such a move by Japan could encourage South Korea to follow suit and anger China, rising tensions in the region.
"The government is absolutely not considering a need to be armed by nuclear weapons," Aso said. "We do not need to acquire nuclear arms with an assurance by U.S. Secretary of State Rice that the bilateral alliance would work without fault."
Rice arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday for talks with Japanese officials amid fears North Korea could be readying for a second nuclear test.
After Aso, Rice was to meet with Defense chief Fumio Kyuma on Wednesday and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday before heading with Aso to Seoul.
Of immediate concern was the prospect of North Korea following its Oct. 9 test with a second nuclear detonation, a move that would heighten tensions further.
U.S. satellites have detected new construction and vehicle activity at the testing grounds that could be preparations for another test, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. But there is not much U.S. officials like negotiator Chris Hill can do except issue warnings.
"I think we would all regard a second test as a very belligerent answer on North Korea's part to the international community," said Hill.
CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports that North Korea has said privately it intends to conduct three more underground nuclear tests.
One of the reasons the North may be eager to conduct a second test, U.S. officials tell Plante, is because the first one appears to have been a failure, yielding a much smaller explosion than they had probably hoped for.
South Korea urged the North on Wednesday not to take any action that would conflict with a U.N. resolution sanctioning Pyongyang for the test.
CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports that Rice's second stop, in South Korea, could prove more challenging for the senior diplomat than her stay in Tokyo.
Rice will ask South Korea to fulfill its obligations on the nuclear proliferation security initiative, which includes stopping and inspecting ships bound for North Korea. But, Pizzey pointed out, the South is wary of taking any action that could lead to cross-border skirmishes with its old foe.
"Of all the countries in the standoff, the stakes are highest for the South Koreans, because North Korea has South Korea hostage," Peter Beck, Director of the North East Asia Project’s International Crisis Group, told Pizzey.
Rice arrived in Tokyo as Japan was debating how far it can go to join in helping the U.S. military to board and search North Korean ships as allowed under U.N. Security Council sanctions passed over the weekend.
Japan's pacifist constitution bans the armed forces from offensive actions, and it was unclear whether such searches on the high seas would violate the charter.
The national Yomiuri newspaper reported Wednesday that Japan was expected to offer naval backup for those searches when Rice arrived in Tokyo.
Japan plans to dispatch destroyers, P-3C patrol aircraft and surveillance planes to waters near Japan to search for or pursue suspicious vessels and assist the inspections, the paper said.
Rice told reporters accompanying her to Japan that Washington was concerned the North Korean test could spark an arms race in the region, and that it was important to tell U.S. allies Japan and South Korea that Washington's defense umbrella was dependable.
Abe has pledged that Japan — the only country ever attacked with atomic weapons — would stick to its ban on possessing or producing nuclear weapons, but some officials have said that Tokyo should discuss its defense options.
U.S. intelligence has concluded that the North Korean device blown up in last week's underground test was nuclear, and likely used plutonium, as opposed to uranium.
Martin said U.S. intelligence assessments indicate North Korea has enough plutonium for six to 10 bombs, but also has the ability to make more.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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"We need to deal with Asian armament. We need to deal, really engage and work hard at it, with China's bid to become a little trade dictator of the Asian region."
Why don't the Russians, French, Germans, Chinese, Indians, etc, etc feel so compelled as you to 'deal with it'?
Understand that your kind of eagerness to 'deal with' and interfere in any and everything is what makes America just about the ONLY target for the disgruntled on the planet.
Imagine Russia and China share borders with Korea, and they are the least bit concerned about Korean nuke tests on KOREAN TERRITORY?
After all, those countries did not consult Korea when they were doing their own nuke test.
We need to do on the Korean Peninsula as bush did with Vietnam, not 'cut and run' but 'run and hide and get drunk'. LOL
In fact, Mexico is occupying us with over 35 million troops at this point. They are in position, their attacks won't begin until they feel it is a good time - though the recent "day off" protest was a little test of their power. What was that other than an attak on the country by foreign troops? An attempt to harm our economy and intimidate our leaders through "peaceful" or negative action, perhaps the action gets less peaceful each time, what can we do about it.
Most Mexicans will in honesty admit they consider this a reconquest, which, my friemd, is an act of troops, not phony "hardwoking" phony illegals (never really saw their fat wives or 10 children working hard)
Here we go - the other side of the coin of our disasterous foreign policy. Bush's know-nothing aggression is the same personality, different day as the liberal's know-nothing avoidance.
We are like sociopaths in the world. Like some sociopath, we either act out in unpredictable violence or complete withdrawal and apathy.
We need to deal with Asian armament. We need to deal, really engage and work hard at it, with China's bid to become a little trade dictator of the Asian region. The stakes are high because of the trade implications etc, we need to deal with it in some way which is not a) a nutso attack without purpose (Bush), or b) self-blaming bizarre withdrawal and apathy (Nancy Pelosi).
We need to deal with our border issues with Mexico. We need to deal with it in a manner that is not a) a nutso aggressive, or b) apathetic and just letting the problem continue. No we are doing b) because they tried a) and met some resistence. So Congress gave up and went home. What else is new.
What is wrong with this country? Can anyone do anything, other than insane violence or giving up? Is there anyon willing to work at things and do the constructive work?
Our motto is now, "If you can bomb it, bomb it, if you can't, ignore it"
As long as we occupy other people's space, we are a threat to the peace of the region. As with the Vietnamese, expect the Koreans to try any and everything to rightly evict us.
We wouldn't stand for Mexican or Canadian troops occupying US space.
Other humans (whom we may arrogantly disrespect in our super power-drunk state) have similar strong feelings about THEIR SPACE!
This is that time to 'cut and run'; rather than to 'stay the course' that leads only to a hellish place.
Bush didn't even 'cut and run' from Vietnam.
Bush 'ran and hide' from Vietnam.
Now this heartless man is intent on sacrificing American lives. Tsk-tsk
While it's a scary thought -- outsourcing ANY powers of assissination, that Special OPS Team
could function under the UN, with the USA having
VERY CLOSE oversight.
So long as our laws permit states to enforce death
penalties (which I condone), why not also enforce
that on a global level ??? I can -- can you --
justify the immorality of killing tyrants who've
caused torture and deaths of hundreds, thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, of innocents young and old ???
Think: if prospective tyrants might ponder consequences of that nature, they may decide not to act so rampantly !!!
And not so incidentally, I'll express heartfelt
THANX for YOUR service to me, mine, our nation !!!
After graduating from Harvard, he still can't pronounce "nuclear".....
I, as well, am from Texas (Houston) and could not believe that Bubba Dubya (even with Rove's packaging job) could ever get elected, much less re-elected.
Kind of scary to see that a moron can make it to the top chair, isn't it?
Interesting scenario, but I must ask how you would square it with our laws prohibiting assasination....
but it has a monstrously-sized military, capable
of swarming over its neighbors like a colony of
fire ants -- and defensive reactions of those then
invaded is very likely to escalate to the nuclear level.
Given the reality its economy is in shambles, and
most of its population is starving, their Maniac's
goal is obviously making nuclear products ready
for the highest bidders -- terrorists. Being
interrupted in the process is certain to cause
the dictator to react violently -- but it MUST be
done.
Given that Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumstead (oops,
but Rumsfield reminds me so of Bumstead!) have
collectively mishandled their entire tenure, so
we have no armed forces to relocate to N. Korea,
there's but one solution -- aside from having the UN be the enforcer. (Duh! What a laugh ....)
The real deal is a Special Ops Team who pounces
and causes that Maniac to simply evaporate. If
that process had been applied to deal with Hussein, all the human and dollar costs of Iraq
would've/could've been avoided. Can anyone doubt
we have the expertise to do that, with a minimal
loss ???
All in all, that's the quickest and cheapest end
to impacts of all such tyrants, once they're duly
certified as such .....
You left off secret prisions, domestic spying, 9 billion dollars unaccounted for and unpursued with Halliburton, torpedoeing the Geneva Conventions and becoming a laughing stock on the world stage for your list of Bubba Dubya's achievements.
De-escalation would require diplomatic negotiations, something this administration is loathe to do. They prefer a showdown approach, a game of chicken to see who blinks first...confrontation is their hallmark.
And at the same time, the administration insults our collective intelligence with this "we don't want an escalation" BS. They just ratcheted up the confontation another notch.
I doubt North Korea has the time or resources for a sustained arms race with anyone. They're a decrepit, corrupt government whose only strength is its military. They'r eprobably on borrowed time.
The little Asian nation may be at the beginning of its end. We can't expect their reactions to sanctions to be sane or necessarily peaceful. If they commence hostilities, they commence hostilities.
Its not like the United States and South Korea haven't tried to build a reasonable relationship with this regime for over half a century.
And enforcing nuclear sanctions from collective government decisions may be a terribly vital policy for securing a relatively safe Earth for our children and grandchildren in the 21st century. Just as the Geneva conventions helped prevent widespread chemical weapons usage in the 20th.
Strong expectations ,set now for nuclear weapons development, could jhelp prevent unprecendented tragedy being visited upon the human race in the 21st century..
- by mjv2944 October 18, 2006 10:54 AM EDT
- I think that China, Russia and all of NK's neighbors should be the ones worrying, as these goof balls will probably have a screw up and pelt them with radiation. If they don't care about their people, they for sure don't care about anyone else.
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