Word: korean
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...dismisses the notion that the U.S. and South Korea have drifted apart: "We are going through a very important transformation period, but our relationship is very sound and healthy." So far, reaction to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's announcement of a planned nuclear test has been unified, with even China, the closest country North Korea has to an ally, warning Pyongyang that a test would bring "serious consequences." Ban is so intent on resolving the North Korean dispute that he says he might visit Pyongyang himself as Secretary-General?something Annan never did. "Having known all the history...
...nuclear weapons, although it has never publicly disclosed such capability) will hardly be confined to Washington. South Korea has called its national security council into emergency session, and will face pressure from the U.S. and Japan to terminate its "Sunshine" policy of trade and engagement aimed at moderating North Korean behavior. Japan, well within range of North Korea's missiles and a longtime object of its ire, will press for a tough response, and may see its own debate over whether to build nuclear weapons rejoined with new vigor. China will face the uncomfortable reality that its patronage...
...strengthening its negotiating position: Its statement last week announcing the forthcoming test stressed that North Korea refused to disarm unilaterally, but remained committed to a dialogue "aimed at settling the hostile relations between the DPRK and the U.S. and removing the very source of all nuclear threats from the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity." It added that North Korea remained committed to achieve "the denuclearization of the peninsula through dialogue and negotiation...
Leave it to Kim Jong Il to try to spoil a party he wasn't invited to. The reclusive North Korean leader's decision to test a nuclear device Monday morning may well have been timed to disrupt two landmark summit meetings between new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his counterparts in Beijing and Seoul. The test reportedly occurred as Abe was flying over the Korean peninsula, on his way from Beijing, where he spent Sunday, to Seoul. Yet in the short term, Pyongyang's provocation may have actually served to smooth the summits, giving the three estranged countries...
...Bolton's almost cheerful description of what he called a "remarkable" Security Council session reflected a surprising reality - the North Korean nuclear test may actually be a boon to the U.S.' long-frustrated efforts to achieve consensus on how to deal with Pyongyang. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has done her best to leave behind the Bush Administration's go-it-alone cowboy diplomacy of the first term and build real international coalitions, but until the test she had no success convincing China and South Korea, the North's primary trading partners, to leverage their economic relationships into serious pressure...