In a regional perspective, the Asia Pacific region, or Indo-Pacific, depending your preference, continues to be troubled with the disruption to the Korean Peninsula peace process, albeit somewhat predictable and always pretentious. China has also confirmed it has exercised long-range H-6K bombers landing and taking off from Woody Island, China’s largest base in the Paracel Islands. Together, these events maintain ominous signs of advancing militarisation and future conflict.
North Korea cancelled high-level talks with South Korea, just prior to them occurring and it appears likely to also cause the withdrawal from a summit with the United States. Opportunity to divert engagement was taken in reacting to the military exercises between the US and South Korea. North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA) called the US-South Korean “Max Thunder” air combat drills, which it said involved US stealth fighters and B-52 bombers, a “provocation” that went against the trend of warming North-South ties.
“This exercise, targeting us, which is being carried out across South Korea, is a flagrant challenge to the Panmunjom Declaration and an intentional military provocation running counter to the positive political development on the Korean Peninsula,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted KCNA as saying. “But we are no longer interested in a negotiation that will be all about driving us into a corner and making a one-sided demand for us to give up our nukes and this would force us to reconsider whether we would accept the North Korea-US summit meeting.”…Click here to read full article.
