Kyle’s Far East Roundup 2/19/10
JMSDF tanker. JMSDF photo.
by KYLE MIZOKAMI
Noteworthy reading on events in Asia and the Pacific.
SOUTH KOREA
Blogger GI Korea at ROK Drop points to a chart depicting South Korean troops participating in U.N. peacekeeping operations. According to the chart, approximately 400 South Koreans serve on a variety of missions, but particularly in the Dongmyeong Unit in Lebanon. South Korea ranks 39th in personnel contributions to U.N. peacekeeping operations, far ahead of #85, Japan.
NORTH KOREA
Blog North Korean Economy Watch is hosting a PDF-format journal by longtime North Korean People’s Army-watcher Joseph Bermudez. Bermudez, an analyst for Jane’s Intelligence Review and author of The Armed Forces of North Korea, has been producing quality NKPA analysis for a quarter century. Though brief, the journal has an excellent article on a salvaged Nork “mother ship,” and part one of an article on NKPA engineer crossing units during the Korean War. Bermudez’s knowledge of the Nork military is vast and future editions of the journal will be must-reads.
CHINA
China Defense Blog has new propaganda posters from the Second Artillery Corps, the land-based ballistic missile unit of the People’s Liberation Army. The full-color posters are also fully bilingual, and include, as CDB notes, a pledge of no first-use of nuclear weapons. “China would not be the first to use nuclear weapon (sic) in any circumstances and at any time would not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-free zones.”
Although propaganda, the PLA should be given some credit for stating, quite plainly, the purpose of the Second Artillery Corps, the no first-use doctrine, and for the copious use of rocket imagery. The English needs a little work, but one is left with little question what SAC is for. This is in contrast with U.S. STRATCOM’s web site, which is written in confusing bureaucratese and nests any actual images of nuclear weapons and delivery systems at least two clicks into the site, preferring instead to show giant images of Air Force generals on project screens and meetings with the Omaha, Nebraska Chamber of Commerce.
JAPAN
Over at The Point, the Asian Policy Point’s blog, APP Nonresident Senior Fellow Michael Penn lays out the reasons the ruling DPJ party of Japan ended the eight year long Japanese naval refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Penn cites a number of reasons, starting with the fact the DPJ considered such a mission neither humanitarian in nature or authorized by the U.N. Security Council, and thus a violation of Article 9 of Japan’s constitution. Penn also believes that ending a mission was a way to assert civilian control of the Japanese military. Finally, Penn warns that ending the mission is part of a “bigger intellectual shift” in Japanese foreign policy than many suspect.