UN Action Along with Talks is the Way to Solve DPRK Issue

Posted by AsiaViews | Sep 12, 2017 | 0 |

China Daily

Sep 8, 2017

The message was clear. As President Xi Jinping told his US counterpart Donald Trump on the phone on Wednesday, China remains “unswervingly committed to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, and preserving the international nuclear nonproliferation regime”.

The message was crucial, too, because it came at a time when the international community is racking its brain over how to respond to Pyongyang’s latest, and most serious, nuclear provocation.

The last thing Beijing wants to see is a war — and the subsequent chaos and refugee exodus — which, besides raising security and humanitarian concerns, would exact an unbearable cost on China’s Northeast, which is already struggling economically.

That Xi reiterated the belief that a long-term solution lies in dialogue and a “comprehensive” approach was only logical. And by highlighting Beijing’s commitment to denuclearization and nonproliferation, Xi made it clear a nuclear-armed, saber-rattling Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is as unacceptable as a war.

Since the almost unavoidable heavy civilian toll a military approach is widely believed to result in has made forcefully disarming Pyongyang a non-option, non-military means remains the only agreeable way to reason with the DPRK, and draw all the parties to the negotiation table.

China and Russia have proposed an ideal short-term tension-defusing solution: “dual suspension”, meaning the United States and the Republic of Korea suspend their joint military drills in exchange for the DPRK halting its nuclear and missile adventure. The proposal is important because the concerned parties’ deep-rooted mutual distrust, especially Pyongyang’s belief in nuclear deterrence, could escalate tensions further leading to the catastrophic, yet avoidable, worst-case scenario－a military conflict.

Strong protests from Beijing and Moscow failed to stop Seoul and Washington from deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in the ROK. Four more launchers were installed in the wee hours of Thursday. Now, Seoul and Tokyo are considering introducing more powerful US “strategic assets”, tactical nuclear weapons included. Should this pattern of escalation perpetuate, the resultant arms race in Northeast Asia could spiral out of control.

Of course, more efforts should be made to discourage Pyongyang from making fresh trouble. But, as China said on Thursday, while the United Nations should take more action against the DPRK, it should also push for dialogue, even the revival of the Six-Party Talks.

Perhaps the failure of even the severest sanctions to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program suggests something the world seems to have missed: until the DPRK is assured there is no threat to its security, it will continue its, at times desperate, attempts to possess nuclear weapons as deterrence against the US. So, if the Six-Party Talks is the means to a long-term solution to the peninsula crisis, addressing the DPRK’s security concern could be the start of that process.

(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2017-09/08/content_31713795.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.”

UN Action Along with Talks is the Way to Solve DPRK Issue