|
ˇ@
US wants ˇĄawkwardˇ¦ China: N Korea
ˇĄSHEER LIESˇ¦: North Korea said US charges that it was to blame for the
sinking of a South Korean warship were intended to make Obama look strong ahead
of elections
REUTERS , SEOUL
Sunday, May 30, 2010, Page 4
North Korea said the US was blaming it for sinking a South
Korean warship in order to keep a US Marine base in Japan and make China, the
Northˇ¦s only major ally, feel ˇ§awkward.ˇ¨
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (·Ĺ®aÄ_), South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama met on South Koreaˇ¦s Jeju island
yesterday and escalating tension on the Korean peninsula was high on the agenda.
The US and South Korea have accused North Korea of the March 26 sinking of the
Cheonan, in which 46 South Korean sailors died. But China, eager not to upset
stability on the Korean peninsula, has not apportioned blame.
The mounting antagonism between the two Koreas has unnerved investors, worried
the confrontation could erupt into conflict. Many analysts say that neither side
is ready to go to war but warn more skirmishes may lie ahead, especially along
their disputed sea border off the west coast.
ˇ§The US secretary of state [Hillary Clinton] let loose a spate of sheer lies to
brand the DPRK as the chief culprit of the warship sinking during her junkets to
Japan, China and south Korea,ˇ¨ the KCNA news agency quoted the North Korean
Foreign Ministry as saying.
DPRK stands for North Koreaˇ¦s official name, the Democratic Peopleˇ¦s Republic of
Korea. In English, KCNA refers to ˇ§southˇ¨ Korea, with no capital ˇ§S,ˇ¨ as it
considers it part of the DPRK, not a separate country.
KCNA said US President Barack Obamaˇ¦s administration was using the episode to
appear strong ahead of mid-term elections, to scare Japan into keeping US troops
on Okinawa and to justify its policy of ˇ§strategic patienceˇ¨ designed to
ˇ§degrade the environment for international investmentˇ¨ in North Korea.
ˇ§Fourthly, it became possible for the US to put China into an awkward position
and keep hold on Japan and south Korea as its servants,ˇ¨ it said.
Hatoyama has abandoned a pledge to move a US Marine base off the island of
Okinawa, saying it was essential for security.
Japan is also toughening sanc-tions against North Korea, the top government
spokesman, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, said on Friday.
South Korea, the US and Japan have urged China, host of on-again, off-again
talks aimed at dismantling North Koreaˇ¦s nuclear program, to take a stand on the
Cheonan incident. Beijing has resisted turning publicly on North Korea, whose
leader Kim Jong-il visited China this month.
Wen is walking a delicate line between shielding North Korea in an effort to
maintain stability in the region and assuaging the deepening worries about
Chinaˇ¦s perceived neutrality in South Korea and Japan, two of its largest
trading partners.
Wen told the South Korean president on Friday that Beijing would not ˇ§harborˇ¨
anyone responsible once China had made its own ˇ§fair and objective judgment on
whoˇ¦s at fault,ˇ¨ a South Korean official told reporters.
North Korea has denounced the investigation as biased.
It says it will rip up military agreements with the South guaranteeing the
safety of cross-border exchanges and has reportedly put its military on combat
readiness, after Seoul said it would ban trade with the North and stop the
Northˇ¦s commercial ships from using South Korean waters.
ˇ@
|
