Letter from Asia: Looking Back On 2006

CBS' Barry Petersen Reflects On N. Korea's Nukes, Japan's Constitution, Pollution In China

(CBS)  I'm Barry Petersen and this Letter from Asia comes from Tokyo.

It has not been a great year in Asia, and for that, blame one country - North Korea - the newest member of the club of nations that have nuclear weapons.

For Kim Jong Il, testing a nuclear device last October means the man who is so short he wears elevated shoes now believes he stands eye to eye with the world's major nuclear power: the United States. And while there is plenty of bargaining going to get Kim to trade his nukes for things like economic aid, on this one, he's trapped by the generals who keep him in power.

According to Prof. Kenneth Quinones, who carefully monitors North Korea, "I don't see him telling his generals, 'Give up your nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles,' unless he gets something really big. Otherwise, he could have his generals jump back at him and say, 'No way, we won't do that.' He's got to avoid it."

The North Korea issue has Japan talking about acquiring its own nuclear weapons. Shinzo Abe is the first prime minister born after World War II, and has also become the first to suggest that Japan abandon its pacifist constitution.

Japan's military now is restricted to self-defense. If it expands its capabilities, it could hit a missile on a North Korean launch pad that may be aimed at Japan.

China faces its own crises: it needs energy. Earlier this year, it hosted a summit of African leaders with the real agenda of getting at Africa's oil reserves. And in 2009, the Three Gorges Dam will start generating electric power. And yet, it's already dwarfed by China's energy demands.

Building a dam blocking the mighty Yangtze River meant two million people were forcibly relocated to make way for a huge reservoir. Whole cities, with all the oil and gas and chemicals and sewage that cities contain, are now underwater.

And that is the challenge China faces well beyond 2007: what to do about pollution.

In its single-minded pursuit that progress is everything, China may condemn its population to a land where the air is unfit to breathe and the water is too dirty to drink: a country in danger of ruining itself in its rush to riches.

[pseudotriton]

Hmm, Germany had democracy prior to WW2, so did Italy, and Japan for that matter. Did that prevent them from invading and threatening other countries? NO. And they were all economically well established, too. In fact, that's what enabled them to be militarily agressive. Can anyone name one impoverished country in history that has successively threatened others? Given the US military might, does anyone honestly believe countries like NK can launch a credible attack?

And there's that statement, "Which country should we fear?" Fear, that's exactly how politicians instigate hatred out of people towards another country or group in order to draw attention away from real problems (remember the Nazis with Jews?).

As for my previous comment, I was saying that Japan should be Asian's top concern, seeing that this article is about Asia. Does everything have to be from an American point of view?

[notblue]

Hmm, Japan: democracy, economic partner, healthy vibrant economy, wonderful modern society etc. North Korea: Communist dictatorship (one of only two left on the planet) phsychotic ruler, defies world and develops nuclear weapons, tests missiles without regard to rest of world opinion, has already tested nuclear devise, throws out U.N. inspectors, would sell weapons on black market to the enemies of the U.S., Counterfits U.S. currency on massive scale, keeps his own people isolated from the rest of the world and starved at the same time, etc. etc. Which country should the world trust? Which country should we fear?

[pseudotriton]

North Korean threat is mostly in rhetoric and symbolic. NK as a country is too poor and weak to be a real threat. Japan's military build up, on the other hand, is real. People in the west seem to forget about Japan's past, especially its doings in WW2, all too easily. We need to truely worry about Japan's desire to return as a military power. The Korean nuclear crisis gave it the perfect excuse, and that's why even China is anxious to stop NK from acquiring a N-bomb. The downplay of this article about Japan is a reflection of western mindset and is alarming for Asian nations who had suffered from Japanese atrocities in WW2.

[bluestardad]

China was great while the Europeans and the rest of the world were still in the Stone Age.