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Asia needs a TMD: Chen

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday warned East Asian countries to address the military expansionism of China and North Korea "actively and effectively."

Chen stressed that the current situation in East Asia demonstrates the urgency for the need of the Theater Missile Defense shield currently being developed by the US.

Commenting on North Korea's missile test launch over the Sea of Japan on Monday and its aggressive posturing, the president said, "China has also deployed hundreds of ballistic missiles in its coastal areas [aimed at Taiwan], a situation which everyone should face seriously. Taiwan, Japan and South Korea all need to cope with the situation actively and effectively."

"North Korea's firing of a missile into the Sea of Japan demonstrates the importance and presses home the need for the missile defense system proposed by the US," he said.

Chen made the remarks as he received Richard Bush, the director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, and a former head of the American Institute in Taiwan.

Chen described North Korea's action, on the eve of the inauguration of South Korea's new president, Roh Moo-hyun, as "unusual."

"While the Iraq issue remains unresolved, North Korea's action is provocative, not only to South Korea and Japan but also to the US and other democratic countries," Chen said. "What's more, it is a warning aimed at the newly inaugurated president of South Korea."

"I believe President Roh must be aware of the situation and will reconsider the relationship between his country and North Korea."

The president also said that the Korean Peninsula should be nuclear-free and that tensions on the peninsula should be solved peacefully and through dialogue.

He added that Taiwan has continued striving to beef up its self-defense capabilities. "Some people think that we do not have to protect the country by ourselves because there will be assistance from the US, but that is totally untrue," he said.

"We must build up an elite, deterrent force to safeguard our national security," he said.

Meanwhile, yesterday, a top security official predicted the North Korean missile firing will prompt South Korea to bolster its relations with China -- a development, he said, that runs counter to Taiwan's interests.

Since China formed official ties with South Korea nine years ago, relations between the two have considerably improved on both the economic and security fronts.

China has replaced the US as South Korea's biggest trading partner, and South Korea has increasingly relied on China in the face of intimidation by North Korea. The official said the missile crisis would prompt a further strengthening of the already cozy China-South Korea relationship.

Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), director of the DPP's international affairs department, said Taiwan should keep its focus on Sino-US relations. She said that North Korea's unexpected move only shows that Pyongyang is in a bad shape.

What is crucial for Taiwan, she said, is how Sino-US relations will evolve in the wake of the incident, "whether China will become the strategic partner, rather than the strategic competitor, of the US."

She said the key will be China's attitude toward North Korea.

"If China decides to comply with US requests by getting tough with North Korea, then Taiwan will need to be wary about falling under China's control under the arrangement," she said.
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