PN's Voice 101
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PN's Voice 101, 01.12.2016
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PN's Voice No. 101, 01. 12. 2016
Small steps, Road to peace
UN Security Council Adopts New Round of Sanctions on N. Korea
The United Nations Security Council has taken another step in its attempt to curb the development of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. The latest sanctions resolution comes 82 days after the North’s fifth nuclear test, the longest period it's taken to adopt a resolution of that kind since 2003. The aim of the new round of sanctions is to reduce Pyongyang’s exports by 30 percent.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the latest sanctions as the toughest sanctions ever against the country; "It sends an unequivocal message that the DPRK must cease further provocative actions and comply fully with its international obligations. Targeted sanctions matter. Security Council sanctions represent the clear and unified will of the international community."
While placing a cap on coal exports to about 38 percent of the level seen last year, the new resolution also added silver, copper, nickel, and zinc to the current embargo list that banned trading gold, titanium and rare earth minerals with the North. The measure is expected to reduce the North's exports by 800 million U.S. dollars a year. That's 30 percent of its outbound shipments. The resolution also called on UN member states to more closely monitor North Korean workers overseas, strengthen financial sanctions on North Korean individuals or entities and tighten regulations on North Korean ships and cargo inspection.
Source : Yonhap News, KBS News, The Guardian
Pentagon: THAAD Deployment will Move Forward Despite Scandal
The U.S. Defense Department said on Tuesday that the planned deployment of THAAD to South Korea will move forward regardless of President Park Geun-hye's possible resignation or impeachment over the corruption scandal. "Our Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployment continues," said Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook at a briefing. "Those remain ongoing, and the alliance continues to move forward with that plan." The remark was a response to a question whether Park's impeachment or resignation would affect the deployment.
While opposition parties are speeding up their efforts to pass a motion to impeach Park, possibly this week, over the high profile political scandal involving Park and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, the President said Tuesday that she will leave the decision on the timing and method of her resignation up to the National Assembly. In July, Seoul and Washington announced a decision to deploy a THAAD battery here by next year to better deter evolving threats from North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. But since the scandal erupted in late October, which has considerably diluted Park's power as a top decision maker, concerns have been raised that the deployment may be derailed.
The concerns come as opposition lawmakers have called into question the government's bungled management of the decision-making process as well as its official announcement, which caused severe criticism from local residents living in the area selected as the location for THAAD. Rep. An Min-suk of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea has recently raised suspicions that Choi may have intervened in the government decision to allow the U.S. Forces Korea to deploy THAAD.
Source : The Korea Times
Top Trump Adviser Ties China and North Korea to Jihadists
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, has been much more outspoken about militant Islamists than he has about China and North Korea, the two main strategic concerns of the United States in Asia. That has left scholars and analysts looking for clues about his views on Asia. A book published in July for which he was a co-author, “The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies,” offers a glimpse into his way of thinking. The half-dozen mentions of China and North Korea are couched in generalities, but there are clues into what the general thinks of the two nations. General Flynn wrote that the United States needed to confront a global “alliance” between “radical Islamists” and the governments of China and North Korea, as well as Russia.
China and North Korea are officially secular Communist states, and China has blamed religious extremists for violence in Muslim areas of its Xinjiang region. In the book, General Flynn acknowledges that people may find the idea of an alliance between the Communist nations and jihadists to be strange, but asserts that it exists. He does not go into details on the alliance. General Flynn is about to take on one of the most important foreign policy jobs in the United States government. He will be expected to coordinate policy-making agencies, manage competing voices and act as Mr. Trump’s main adviser, and perhaps arbiter, on foreign policy.
By appointing General Flynn, a former Army intelligence officer, Mr. Trump has signaled that he intends to prioritize policy on the Middle East and jihadist groups, though the Obama administration seems to have stressed to Mr. Trump the urgency of dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program.
Source : The New York Times
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