Grave Concerns that the DPRK Crisis is Getting Out of Hand

Posted by AsiaViews | Dec 3, 2017 | 0 |

China Daily

Nov 30, 2017

Unilateral countermoves by individual stakeholders have proven insufficient, and ineffective, in reining in the nuclear weapons program of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as its latest missile test on Wednesday demonstrated.

While the accumulative effect of Pyongyang’s most recent series of tests has been a hardening of the consensus among the stakeholders that they should come to an end, there is still no well-coordinated collective response to achieve that aim.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) responded to the latest DPRK missile test with a missile firing of its own within minutes, knowing full well it was a meaningless gesture.

After the launch, the DPRK’s state news agency KCNA declared that Pyongyang had now achieved its mission of becoming a nuclear state, calling the weapons a defense against the “nuclear blackmail policy” of the United States. Although analysts suggest such missiles would be unable to hit the US carrying a nuclear warhead, the launch was enough for US President Donald Trump to issue one of his enigmatic statements – “We will take care of it.”

Which is worrying. His recent unilateral move to tighten the screw of sanctions – by renaming Pyongyang a sponsor of terrorism – only served to accentuate the belief that his interest in diplomacy is simply for show.

Helpless as he is, ROK President Moon Jae-in is correct in observing the real danger is “the situation could get out of control if North Korea perfects its ICBM technology”.

As a key stakeholder in the unfolding confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington, Beijing is in an awkward position, bearing the brunt of the blame for the failure to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear missile program, even though that failure has essentially been everyone’s, and being criticized for “inaction”, which totally ignores the truth.

Beijing wants the two belligerents to calm down as much as anyone. It is vexed that a golden opportunity to build concerted momentum to encourage Pyongyang to engage in talks has been so casually wasted by the Trump administration’s recent action of renaming Pyongyang a sponsor of state terrorism, which may have prompted Pyongyang’s latest missile launch.

There is a severe trust deficit among the relevant parties that is being repeatedly exacerbated by the actions of Washington and Pyongyang. This, as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, is moving the situation further away from the point where a settlement of the crisis can begin.

Which means the clock is ticking down to one of two choices: learning to live with the DPRK having nuclear weapons or triggering a tripwire to the worst-case scenario. But there is a third choice, which the US keeps ignoring. That is for all stakeholders to genuinely pull together to put an end to Pyongyang’s dangerous game once and for all through dialogue and a peace treaty.

To achieve this, as Beijing has consistently argued, requires accommodating the concerns of the various parties and following the proposed step-by-step plan to establish the conditions necessary for dialogue.

(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2017-11/30/content_35130164.htm)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Grave Concerns that the DPRK Crisis is Getting Out of Hand