According to reports from many media outlets, Jo Sung-gyu, deputy head of North Korea’s Tourism Bureau, led a delegation on a five-day visit to Taiwan to discuss with Taiwanese tourism industry representatives the possibility of setting up direct flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Pyongyang in North Korea during Korean festivals.
Surprisingly, Taiwan’s national security agencies were apparently unaware that officials from a controversial communist state were visiting Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to admit that Taiwan’s representative office in Singapore had not reported the visit to the ministry in a timely manner when issuing tourist visas to the delegation members. This situation makes it clear that communication channels between the government’s national security units are flawed, and that a thorough review and improvements are urgently needed.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US, the international security environment changed drastically. This made it vital that diplomatic and national defense policies complement each other to safeguard national security.
Based on this “new world view,” the national security systems of some advanced countries have strengthened their intelligence information gathering and defense information analysis in an effort to prevent terrorist attacks and to counter other threats. They also set up complete crisis management mechanisms to enhance communication between different government units.
The main purpose of these measures is to prevent potential crises and to stop them if they do occur. This is the only way that a government can secure both public and national safety.
North Korea is a totalitarian state, and its nuclear threat remains one of the biggest variables currently affecting global security. Although the future development of the North Korean tourism industry is highly attractive to Taiwan, Jo, who has already visited Taiwan with his subordinates three times, remains a high-ranking North Korean official.
Although the visits were of a non-official character and aimed at generating business, the ministry should have been proactive and should have immediately obtained the schedule for his Taiwanese visits and informed national security units that they should pay close attention to the visits.
This would have been the correct way of handling the situation and it would have dispelled any public doubts.
Earlier this month, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) failed to identify a photograph of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Jia Qinglin (賈慶林), who is responsible for China’s Taiwan affairs. Subsequently, Taiwan’s representative office in Singapore failed to report Jo’s visit in a timely manner. Not long ago, the Ministry of National Defense was unaware of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) plan for an East China Sea peace initiative (東海和平倡議), and its rash punishment of Rear Admiral Chang Feng-chiang (張鳳強), former commander of the navy’s 168th Fleet, was also strongly criticized across the board.
All these cases demonstrate that serious loopholes exist in Taiwan’s intelligence reporting and communication mechanisms.
If these warning signs are not given the attention they deserve, then there is serious cause for concern over the state of Taiwan’s national security.
Yao Chung-yuan is a strategy consultant to the Association for Managing Defense and Strategies.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) led a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan in late February. During their various meetings with Taiwan’s leaders, this delegation never missed an opportunity to emphasize the strength of their cross-party consensus on issues relating to Taiwan and China. Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi are leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Their instruction upon taking the reins of the committee was to preserve China issues as a last bastion of bipartisanship in an otherwise deeply divided Washington. They have largely upheld their pledge. But in doing so, they have performed the
It is well known that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) ambition is to rejuvenate the Chinese nation by unification of Taiwan, either peacefully or by force. The peaceful option has virtually gone out of the window with the last presidential elections in Taiwan. Taiwanese, especially the youth, are resolved not to be part of China. With time, this resolve has grown politically stronger. It leaves China with reunification by force as the default option. Everyone tells me how and when mighty China would invade and overpower tiny Taiwan. However, I have rarely been told that Taiwan could be defended to
It should have been Maestro’s night. It is hard to envision a film more Oscar-friendly than Bradley Cooper’s exploration of the life and loves of famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. It was a prestige biopic, a longtime route to acting trophies and more (see Darkest Hour, Lincoln, and Milk). The film was a music biopic, a subgenre with an even richer history of award-winning films such as Ray, Walk the Line and Bohemian Rhapsody. What is more, it was the passion project of cowriter, producer, director and actor Bradley Cooper. That is the kind of multitasking -for-his-art overachievement that Oscar
Chinese villages are being built in the disputed zone between Bhutan and China. Last month, Chinese settlers, holding photographs of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), moved into their new homes on land that was not Xi’s to give. These residents are part of the Chinese government’s resettlement program, relocating Tibetan families into the territory China claims. China shares land borders with 15 countries and sea borders with eight, and is involved in many disputes. Land disputes include the ones with Bhutan (Doklam plateau), India (Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin) and Nepal (near Dolakha and Solukhumbu districts). Maritime disputes in the South China