Yesterday, a week after North Korea tested a nuclear weapon - South Korean troops opened fire on a drone as it crossed the demilitarized zone from the north. The Yonhap news agency reports that the unmanned aircraft turned back after about 20 shots. North and South Korea are also blasting propaganda at each other from huge loudspeakers along the DMZ; all part of a difficult week for South Korea's president, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.
For three years, President Park Geun-hye visited China repeatedly and last September, stood out as the Only American ally to stand with President Xi Jing Ping at China's grand ceremony to mark the end of the Second World War. If she hoped that as a result, China would restrain North Korea that promise vanished with last week's nuclear test. If she hoped China would respond with tough sanctions, she had time to reconsider when, according to the New York Times, President Xi declined to accept her phone calls.
Yesterday in a nationally broadcast speech, President Park said the international response to the North Korean test "Must be strong enough to change North Korea's attitude," and specifically called out Beijing, saying "China has repeatedly said publicly that it would not tolerate North Korea's Nuclear weapons."
But if (as most analysts believe) China's response turns out to be more wrist slap than game changer. The US hopes President Park will turn east. In 2012, the year before she took office, an attempt to establish intelligence links between Seoul and Tokyo unraveled due to political opposition in South Korea. The US has to act as a go-between. Last Friday, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin commander of the US Seventh Fleet said, "It really is in the interest of all three countries that we have no seams between that information when you are trying to defend your country from a ballistic missile."
