• BBC NEWS – ASIA PACIFIC 23 November 2010 Last updated at 17:07 GMT

   

  North Korea firing: Why now?

  The exchange of fire took place on an island very close to the disputed border

  North and South Korea have exchanged artillery fire across the disputed western maritime border. The BBC looks at what might have triggered the incident.

  Power transfer

  Some analysts believe that provocative acts by North Korea are closely linked to the leadership transfer under way inside the secretive country. Kim Jong-il – who is believed to be in poor health – is thought to be in the process of trying to hand over power to his designated successor, his son Kim Jong-un.

  In September North Korea’s ruling party held a rare congress in which the younger Kim was given key roles in the party and the Central Military Commission.

  Analysts say incidents such as the sinking of the Cheonan warship in March and the recent artillery firing are unlikely to be rogue actions by the North Korean military. Rather, they are aimed at bolstering Kim Jong-un’s standing.

  “It seems inevitable that it is related to North Korea’s succession,” said Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “(Kim Jong-un) has no accomplishments to his record. But if he can appear to be in charge of a military that is achieving some kind of military success, it would probably aid his succession.”

  Power struggle

  Former US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill led the US delegation in the six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis.

  He says the North Korean military is increasingly taking its own orders, and that this latest act was taken unilaterally by the military without “political cover”.

  Mr Hill says there are increasing questions over civilian authority in North Korea.

  “North Korea is going through a very difficult internal transition. It’s very clear the North Korean military is unenthused about the proposed succession from Kim Jong-il to his son.

  “There are a lot of problems there and I think we are seeing that manifest in the way they behave to the outside,” he says.

  Nuclear deadlock

  North Korea has in the past sought to raise tensions as a way of strengthening its negotiating position, particularly in relation to the nuclear issue.

  Six-party talks involving the US, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear programme have been stalled since April 2009. Pyongyang agreed in 2005 to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and political concessions. But the deal fell apart over the issue of verification – and in particular over whether or not North Korea had a uranium enrichment programme, in addition to its plutonium programme.

  US doubts proved well-founded; In November 2010 North Korea revealed a modern uranium enrichment facility equipped with more than 1,000 centrifuges to a visiting top US scientist. US official said they were stunned at the scale of the facility but not at all surprised that it existed.

  Hours before the artillery fire incident occurred America’s top envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said that the US could not “contemplate resuming negotiations while active programmes are under way”.

  Military exercises

  Communications have traditionally been fraught between the North and South Korean militaries and the two have clashed on numerous occasions in the past, particularly in the tense western border area.

  South Korea recognises the Northern Limit Line, drawn unilaterally by the US-led United Nations Command to demarcate the seas border at the end of the Korean War – but North Korea does not.

  South Korea says the shelling began after North Korea sent several messages protesting against military exercises being staged near the island, which lies 3km (two miles) from the disputed maritime border.

  South Korea began an annual military exercise in the area on Monday.

  Aid woes

  The South Korean president’s stance on economic aid has led to a marked deterioration in relations between the two sides.

  Since Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008, the flow of aid has fallen to a trickle. He says that the provision of aid must be linked to progress on denuclearisation.

  North Korea relies on aid to feed its people and under Mr Lee’s predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, received regular cross-border shipments – so the move has hit hard.

  North Korea has also been hit by flooding in recent years, damaging harvests, and both United Nations and US sanctions continue to bite, leaving its economy in chaos.

  Sabre-rattling

  North Korea wants both economic aid and the attention of the US – and has in recent weeks called for nuclear talks to resume, albeit on its terms.

  The country has in the past used high-profile actions such as missile launches to position itself higher on the international agenda and refocus attention on it.

• Korea’s secretive First Family
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3203523.stm

A short history about US involvment in Taliban rule

I was listening to the ABC’s PNN yesterady as Parliament was discussing human rights in Afghanistan and the plight of the Afghan’s under the Taliban. The speeches were very emotional and many members of Parliament spoke of the human suffering and human rights violations still occuring now.

I don’t doubt the sencerity of the speakers’ feelings to help the Afghan people but I always find it astounding that no-one ever makes mention of the fact that how the Taliban ended up ruling Afghanistan in the first place. During the Cold War, in the 1980s, when Russia supported the Communist government in Afghanistan against the Mujahedeen (Muslim fighters ) Resistance the USA wanted the Russians out of Afghanistan. So, together with Pakistan, Iran, the Saudis and China, the US government under Carter armed and financed the Mujahedeen, who were insurgents fighting the Russians. The CIA is said to have given millions of dollars to the insurgents and Ronald Reagan included support for the Mujahedee in his official US foreign policy.

At the same time, Osama bin Laden, originally from a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia, was a prominent organizer and financier of an all-Arab Islamist group of foreign volunteers; his Maktab al-Khadamat funnelled money, arms, and Muslim fighters from around the Muslim world into Afghanistan, with the assistance and support of the Saudi and Pakistani governments.

When the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan from about 1988, the Mujahedeen came into power. As they were not a unified group the individual war-lords continued fighting each other trying to gain power in Kabul. in 1996, after years of civil war, which had caused devastation and havoc, a new armed movement, with the support of Pakistan and al-Qaeda, ceased power from the various war lords in most of the country. They became known as the Taliban (“students” in Arabic), referring to the Saudi-backed religious schools known for producing extremism. Veteran mujahideen were confronted by this radical splinter group in 1996.

So the Taleban, once supported and partially financed by the US in order to oust the Russians, began to rule Afghanistan and enforced one of the strictest interpretations of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world. they became notorious internationally for their treatment of women, who were forced to wear the burqa in public. They were allowed neither to work nor to be educated after the age of eight, and until then were permitted only to study the Qur’an. They were not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperon, which led to illnesses remaining untreated. They faced public flogging in the street, and public execution for violations of the Taliban’s laws.

By 2001 a million Afghans had fled Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of people had died and the prominent opposition leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, who had tried to protect the population from the rule of the Taliban, was assassinated on 9 September 2001. Two days later the Twin Towers were attacked and it was this horrendous terrorist act which caused the US  to take military action in Afghanistan.

What is astounding is that US government paid no attention to the suffering of the Afghan people after the withdrawal of the Russian forces in 1989. As long as their arch enemies were gone the US considered their job done and paid no attention to the humanitarian crises developing in Afghanistan, the draconian law imposed by the Taliban. Their self serving support of the Mujahedeen ultimatley caused the rise of the Taliban and created the perfect training ground, with the help of Pakistan, for Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.  The suffering, starvation and horrendous political situation in Afghanistan was never an issue for the US administration until the time when their own nation came under attack. The US felt no responsibility to help the Afghan people although it was they and their allies who had played a major part in creating the political environment in which the Taliban came to power and which caused  the  injustice of Sharia law and the human rights violations the Afghan people have endured since 1996.

2 May 2011:

Bin Laden killed in US raid on Pakistan hideout

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/bin-laden-killed-in-us-raid-on-pakistan-hideout-20110502-1e56d.html

The attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001 was evil and a terrible act of violence and I can understand that Osama’s death gives many Americans a sense of closure, especially those who are and were directly affected. There is no question …that we all were horrified and shocked to see this tragedy unfold before our eyes.
I say this because I feel genuine and deep empathy for everyone who was affected personally by this horrorific attack. It is because of this feeling of helplessness and empathy at the memory of all who died that day that I am once again reminded of the political decisions made by Carter, Reagan and Bush, which significantly contributed to the rise of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and a strengthening of the fanatical Islamist movements in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is due to American support of these fanatical groups, beginning in the Cold War years, which aided terrorists like Osama bin Laden to get a foothold.
Osamam bin Laden, the man, whose megalomaniacal demagoguery, religious fanaticism and anti Western hatred led to the mindless and devastating attack on thousands of innocent Americans in 2001, had been instrumental in the suppport of the Taliban Dictatorship in Afghanistan. Millions of Afghanis died suffering under the Taliban due to Carter’s, Reagan’s and Bush’s actions. However, the guilty parties for the starvation, suffering, complete loss of political and religious freedom, lies with not only the Taliban but also the US governments of the time. The US wanted to do whatever it took to get Russia out of Afghanistan and was willing to arm and finance the most fanatical Muslim Islamists not matter how dangerous their ideas. Osama’s death should not bring triumphant celebrations but feelings of grief for those who died in September 2001 but also for the millions of dead Afghans who seem to conveniently have been left out of the historic events leading up to a ‘war on terror’ that has now lasted almost 10 years..