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Joe McCarthy
01-22-2011, 10:19 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_korea_north

[QUOTE][SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States warned China it would redeploy forces in Asia if Beijing failed to rein in North Korea, an Obama administration official said on Friday, as Pyongyang bowed to Seoul's demands for crisis talks.

President Barack Obama's warning had persuaded China -- the North's main diplomatic and economic backer -- to take a harder line toward Pyongyang, and opened the door to a resumption of inter-Korean talks, possibly next month, the official said, confirming a report in The New York Times.

North Korea accepted the South's conditions for talks on Thursday, marking a major breakthrough in the crisis on the peninsula. Such dialogue could clear the way for the resumption of the six-party aid-for-disarmament talks.

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Obama warned his Chinese counterpart, President Hu Jintao, that if Beijing did not step up pressure on North Korea, Washington would redeploy its forces in Asia to protect itself from a potential North Korean strike on U.S. soil.

The Obama administration official declined to give more specific details about any possible redeployments. China was angered by last year's large-scale U.S.-South Korean military drills in the Yellow Sea, seen as a major projection of U.S. power off its coasts.

The drills included participation of a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier and were meant to be a show of force that would deter the North from any future provocations.

Obama first made the warning in a telephone call to Hu last month, and repeated it over a private dinner at the White House on Tuesday, the U.S. administration official said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs first hinted at the stepped-up pressure at a news briefing on Thursday, when he told reporters that Obama's meeting with Hu on Wednesday had helped shift entrenched attitudes on the Korean peninsula.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that Pyongyang was becoming a direct threat to the United States and could develop intercontinental ballistic missiles within five years.

Wang Dong of Peking University's School of International Studies said Washington's reported warning to Beijing was a slap in the face for the Chinese leader, who has urged the two Koreas to resolve their differences through dialogue.

"Playing tough like this, it might just backfire, I'm afraid," Wang said. "If this article represents the real thinking by American leaders, the danger of war on the peninsula can never be dismissed."

"China has its own strategy in trying to influence North Korea. It wants to find the least costly path to solve this crisis."

The proposed talks would be the first contact between the two Koreas since a deadly artillery attack on the South in November sharply raised tensions on the divided peninsula.

Pyongyang bowed to Seoul's demands that talks specifically address that attack and the sinking of a South Korean warship last March, but made no mention of talks on denuclearization -- the central component of six-party meetings.

Washington and Tokyo have cautiously welcomed the Korean talks, but there has been no comment from Beijing.

Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the talks, saying they marked progress but that Seoul's demands for an apology for the attacks could prove difficult for Pyongyang to accept.

"There must be a paradigm shift from both North and South Korea for the sake of stability in the region," said Ahn Yinhay of Korea University. "Given the favorable relationship between China and the United States, now is the right time."

NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY

Washington and Beijing have argued that North-South dialogue is a prerequisite to a resumption of six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. Pyongyang walked out of the six-party talks, under which it previously agreed to abandon its nuclear programs, and pronounced them dead in 2009.

Obama and Hu have jointly expressed concern about North Korea's expanding nuclear program and the South's Unification Ministry said it was formulating a proposal for separate nuclear talks with the North.

"I think there will be opportunities to discuss the specific measures aimed toward denuclearization," the South's envoy for six-party talks, Wi Sung-lac, told YTN radio.

"We need to confirm that North Korea is sincere about denuclearization, and talks are needed for this reason. Through such talks we will need to see whether the six-party talks could be productive."

The prospect of resuming the six-party talks will set off a new wave of diplomacy, starting with next' week's visit to the region by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg.

The group negotiations have been beset by problems since their start in 2003, but experts say they are the best multilateral forum to engage Pyongyang and control tensions.

The South's Defense Ministry said it would propose a date for the preliminary talks sometime next week, adding they would likely take place in mid-February.

The North's KCNA state news agency on Friday published the letter sent to the South's Defense Ministry. "We are in a firm position to resolve all military issues including those the South wants to propose," it said.

/QUOTE]

InvaderNat
01-22-2011, 11:28 PM
More paranoid warmongering rhetoric from the American government, every nation who isn't their friend or a weakling state is apparently just waiting to strike them :rolleyes:.

Tell Obama to go 'fornicate' with himself China. Whats he gonna do? invade China, block off their trade routes? I don't think so. America is too heavily indebted financially and relies too much on Chinese manufacturing to cross the Chinese in any serious way.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, America's days as a state who can boss others around are numbered. The Asia-Pacific region will belong to China by 2025 (not literally of course).

Joe McCarthy
01-23-2011, 09:23 PM
Originally Posted by InvaderNat
More paranoid warmongering rhetoric from the American government

Given North Korea's recent attack on South Korea, I think it is clear who are the warmongers.


every nation who isn't their friend or a weakling state is apparently just waiting to strike them

Resuming these talks and disarming North Korea are of course worthy objectives.


I've said it once and I'll say it again, America's days as a state who can boss others around are numbered.

True. Soon it'll be China's turn to boss others around - not that they don't do so already, or won't on a much grander scale once they have sufficient power.


The Asia-Pacific region will belong to China by 2025

Well, here's a toast to New Zealand being in China's sphere of influence. :p

InvaderNat
01-24-2011, 12:35 AM
Given North Korea's recent attack on South Korea, I think it is clear who are the warmongers.

North Korea is just like a bratty child, ya don't give it attention when plays up or you'll end up with a tempter tantrum.

'Timeouts' work sometimes but do you really want to waste thousands of US soldiers lives to take out a country that really is no threat to America.


Well, here's a toast to New Zealand being in China's sphere of influence. :p

Yeah well I've already conceded that inevitability, Asians already make up 10% of the country (largely Chinese). Then again China pretty much owns the East Coast of America too.

Europe is the only long-term hope European people's have. :(

Sol Invictus
01-24-2011, 01:09 AM
America is in no position to be telling China what to do. ;)

Guapo
01-24-2011, 02:14 AM
Everyone better start learning Cantonese and Mandarin.

Joe McCarthy
01-24-2011, 10:54 PM
Originally Posted by InvaderNat
Europe is the only long-term hope European people's have.

Possibly, though I certainly wouldn't count on them with regards to China. The EU went as far as to lift their arms embargo on China in 2005, which provoked a threat by the US to end the Atlantic alliance. The Europeans backed down, as they should have.

So you see, it's actually a good thing that America bosses people around. ;) Who else can we count on, the French? The Chinese?


Then again China pretty much owns the East Coast of America too.


That's an overstatement, but I want to say that it would defy what we know of both history and human nature to just expect the US to be compliant in its eclipse by China. I'll even go so far as to say that China may be remembered one day as America's Germany, if you get my drift.