Trust … Or Just Timidity? - China and North Korea seek peace - Brief Article

Business Asia, August, 2000 by Paul Eckert

A SMILING North Korea and polite China at a key Asian diplomatic meeting late last month were signs to some that peace is upon the region, but others fear too many hard issues are being swept under the carpet for the sake of show.

The debut of North Korean Foreign Minister Park Nam Sun at the Bangkok ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) will probably go down as the most significant achievement of the security gathering of Asian countries and Western nations including the United States, Russia and the European Union.

However, behind the diplomatic cocktail party, some diplomats readily acknowledge that it is precisely those issues which make ARF necessary: missile threats, Chinese intimidation of Taiwan, territorial disputes, and the past behaviour of North Korea, which are being conveniently ignored.

In addition to North Korea, China got off lightly as the Association of South East Asian Nations applied its non-interference principle to its ARF partners -- an approach that key ASEAN envoys frankly admitted had failed to address economic and political crises.

It is doubtful that treating the region's tough Communist customers with kid gloves will work any better. Host Thailand -- which didn't want to bring up "thorny issues" to spoil the mood -- had to overlook Pyongyang's default on a US$97 million rice bill from Thailand and North Korea's 1999 kidnapping of a defecting diplomat and his family in Bangkok.

For the top diplomats of Japan and South Korea, the price of landmark meetings with Park was also steep: treading lightly over North Korea's missile threat and ignoring what Japan believes was the kidnapping of 10 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s, and as many as 400 South Koreans in the past.

The day after Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono held a historic meeting with Park, Pyongyang's Korea Central News Agency declared that: "There is no denying that Japan will launch the second Pacific war under the signboard of `humanitarianism'."

China, the largest of the 37 members of ARF, has made a diplomatic art of pressing partners to treat it differently from others, said EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten.

ASEAN and others should "treat China as they would treat any other country", said Patten, who was vilified by Beijing for his bluntness as Britain's last governor of Hong Kong.

China used the forum to sound off on the "Cold War mentality" of the United States and others studying a proposed shield against ballistic missiles and rail against intervention to prevent human rights abuses in authoritarian states.

But Beijing's threats to use force to bring Taiwan to heel and the thicket of missiles it has deployed across the narrow waterway from the island were not on the agenda.

"We like the ASEAN way of quiet diplomacy," a Chinese official said before the Bangkok meetings. But the official stumbled when asked to cite an instance where that worked. "Recognition does not represent acceptance," he said.

But China-watcher Wang Gungwu, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, said the quiet approach was the only way to build confidence in a nervous Asia.

"To ensure the prosperity in this region, we have to build trust," he said. "So much of traditional diplomatic policy has been built on suspicion. Asians are asking: `Why not try trust?'."

-- Reuters

eye ON ASIA

Rooms to let Office vacancy rates (% from 1999-2000)

LOCATION            MARCH 1999   DECEMBER 1999   MARCH 2000

Hong Kong Central     17.6%          14.4%         10.3%
Shanghai (Puxi)       43.2%          39.3%         36.1%
Beijing               37.6%          30.1%         21.2%
Tokyo                  5.1%           5.9%          5.1%
Makati (Manila)       12.3%          13.8%         15.9%
Singapore             12.5%          11.5%         10.7%
Kuala Lumpur          15.7%          18.8%         17.8%
Bangkok               43.1%          38.9%         36.3%
Jakarta               22.3%          25.5%         25.4%
Sydney                 7.1%           6.4%          5.3%
Melbourne               15%          12.7%         11.7%

SOURCE: JONES LANG LASALLE