North Korea bomb rest challenges US policy in Asia

North Korea’s fourth nuclear weapons test spread alarm through the US and allied countries, reigniting concerns about Pyongyang’s advancements and thrusting the country back into the diplomatic spotlight, the Wall Street Journal said in a commentary on Thursday.

The Obama administration on Wednesday disputed North Korea’s declaration that it had detonated a hydrogen bomb, a thermonuclear device with far greater destructive power than a conventional atomic bomb. But even if the device is proven smaller than that claimed by North Korea, the test indicates Pyongyang has continued to advance its nuclear program.

Obama, despite a diplomatic pivot aimed at increasing US clout in Asia, has seen North Korea perform three of its four nuclear tests during his time in office. The isolated communist country has long been resistant to diplomatic pressure, despite international sanctions that exacerbate the grinding poverty there.

The blast underscores both the strategic significance and the complications of the US relationship with China. Despite Washington’s recent efforts to counter Beijing’s influence in the region, it is precisely China’s influence that the US most needs to address North Korea’s continuing nuclear bomb work.

Beyond Asia, Pyongyang’s provocation comes as Obama contends with other high-stakes national security challenges at the start of his last year in office, including heightened tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the expanding threat of Daesh, a worsening conflict in Syria and rocky relations with Russia.

The test posed by North Korea quickly became fodder for critics of Obama’s global leadership, who cast it as a reflection of his weakness in confronting America’s adversaries. It also assured that the next US president will inherit an expanding portfolio of foreign-policy crises.

“Faced with an international environment of growing complexity, uncertainty and risk, the question for the US is whether it can still afford to play the world-wide strategic role it took on after WWII and expanded at the close of the Cold War,” said Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center in Washington.

“Our own domestic challenges, political and economic, and the rise of other nations require a reassessment of our global aims and capabilities,” he added.

The White House scrambled Wednesday to coordinate an international response to the nuclear test and to reassure US allies in the region.

“It’s a big stain on the pivot to Asia,” said Victor Cha, who was director for Asian affairs at the White House’s National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration. “This is just going to get kicked to the next administration, and the problem is going to be exponentially worse.”

Obama has few options for responding to North Korea, already the most isolated country in the world, foreign policy experts said. The US could levy new sanctions, including under an executive order Obama signed a year ago expanding his authority to do so after Pyongyang’s alleged cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The administration could also push for more military cooperation with Japan and South Korea and advance efforts on regional missile defense. And US officials could initiate discussions about contingency planning in the region with China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.

But any major changes in North Korea’s behavior largely depend on China. It is unclear whether China is prepared to take significant steps, such as a trade embargo against North Korea, but as Pyongyang’s leading ally Beijing has unmatched influence.

Yet the extent to which the US must rely on China to pressure North Korea shows the US can’t go too far in trying to counter Beijing’s influence, including in confrontations over its assertiveness in the South China Sea. China is also deeply skeptical of any US push for an expanded ballistic-missile defense shield for its Asian allies.

Source: MENA