President Chen Shui-bian (
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.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS