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UN needed to achieve peace and security
By Li Ming-juinn 李明峻
Sunday, Jun 06, 2010, Page 8
Since the release of evidence that North Korea sank a South
Korean warship earlier this year, South Koreans have been in a state of
collective anger that has forced South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to accuse
the North of violating the armistice agreement between the two countries and
promised that they “will be made to pay.”
The US has said it does not exclude the possibility that North Korea once again
will be added to the list of states that support terrorism and US Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton has visited East Asia to prepare for a joint
condemnation of North Korea together with South Korea and Japan.
The US has even deployed a dozen F-22 fighter jets at an air force base in the
Ryukyu Islands.
However, because North Korea angrily rejects the accusations, a tough approach
will only push Pyongyang into taking desperate measures, which can only bring
the Korean Peninsula closer to the brink of war.
Taiwan’s position should, first of all, be to call for a careful UN
investigation of the evidence and if there is sufficient evidence to support the
view that North Korea is guilty, the issue should be handled by the UN, which
would make it untenable for Russia and China to continue to support the Kim
Jong-il regime.
China in particular, being a permanent member of the UN Security Council and
Pyongyang’s lifeline, has the responsibility to make North Korea accept the
council’s decision.
This would be the only way to build international consensus on how to handle the
matter and avoid domestic public pressure from pushing South Korea to act rashly
and push North Korea into starting a war. This is why the best way to handle the
situation is for the UN to quickly initiate a publicly credible investigation.
Furthermore, Article 2.4 of the UN Charter states that “All members shall
refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against
the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any
other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”
This clearly makes the use of force to resolve international conflicts a
violation of the charter.
This is why, despite ample evidence that North Korea is guilty, increased
tensions and maybe a large-scale war would be the result if the US, South Korea
and Japan teamed up to condemn the North and even implement strong sanctions. In
a way, such actions would also be in violation of the UN Charter. This is why
South Korea should rely on collective security and allow the international
community to handle the issue collectively to maintain international peace and
security.
Judging from the sinking of the South Korean warship, Seoul’s decade-old
reconciliation and cooperation policy with the North has not guaranteed peace
and security on the Korean Peninsula. As South Korea stops providing the North
with economic aid, an angry North Korea immediately hits back with threats of
the use of force.
This shows us that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) diplomatic truce with Beijing,
which makes Chinese goodwill the only guarantee for Taiwan’s security, will only
lead to China taking what it wants. As soon as China is unhappy, it can resort
to threatening the use of force.
This is also why a bilateral agreement with Beijing will never guarantee
anything. Only by relying on the collective guarantees of the UN can
international peace and security be ensured.
Li Ming-juinn is a member of the Northern Taiwan Society.
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