North Korea changes Asian and American political dynamics

							                 Changes in the North Pacific and American Politics [or Lisa's
                                                     recommended title]
                                                                      by Frank Kaufmann, 01/13/13
                                                                                          PAGE 1
              Changes in the North Pacific and American Politics
                                      by Frank Kaufmann
                                      Dateline Soul, Korea
                                            01/13/13

Though the world failed to end last December, as predicted by some pundits, not
everything bad failed to one very bad event actually did happen. that month. The
Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea – North Korea – the Far East's only nuclear
power, broke an embarrassing three 3 time, embarrassing losing streak, successfully
lifting a missile into orbit.

New York Times writer Choe Sang-Hun reported that though North Korea insisted that
its Unha-3 rocket, launched Dec. 12 to put an earth-observation satellite in orbit, was
part of its peaceful space program, U.S. intelligence officials disagree. South Koreans
recovered and Iintelligence officials after analyzinganalyzed the rocket’s flight data
and the debris of its oxidizer tank, recovered in waters off South Korea two days after
the rocket launchinglaunch and concluded , reported that North Korea clearly was
testing a ballistic missile. The missile can Offiicials ruther said the missile that could fly
more than 6,200 miles, with a warhead of about 1,100 to 1,300 pounds, putting the
West Coast of the United States in range.

The DPRK continues its Apocalypse Now style-war with South Korea, and by extension
with the United States and our close ally Japan. Thise sad fact that a recluse nation,
inaccessible to the international community, is heavily armed with nuclear weapons,
and now finally has developed a delivery system capable of threatening US cities, is
not a good thing at all.


Not only does North Korea have nuclear missiles and a delivery system, it is
categorically opposed to the United States and the freedom and democracy
America holds so dear. [Frank: Feel free to change this wording. I want to say
something here about North Korea and the US are diametrically opposed.]
China too can by no stretch be put in the US allies column either. We face serious
opposition with China in all areas including economic, military, and political;
Economically with the obvious liquidity and debt imbalance we criminally brought on
ourselves. Militarily in such vital areas geopolitically as the South China Sea, and with
the permanent hair-trigger nervousness related to US military commitment to Taiwan.
And politically as these two world powers vie for influence in arenas such as Africa,
Syria and the Middle, East and elsewhere.

Yet even China an opponent or competitor to US interests is not consonant with the
DPRK as a nuclear power.
                 Changes in the North Pacific and American Politics [or Lisa's
                                                     recommended title]
                                                                  by Frank Kaufmann, 01/13/13
                                                                                      PAGE 2


The success of North Korea's December 12 missile launch, reconfirms that the situation
in the North Pacific, and the Pacific Rim as a whole, is clearly unequivocally one of
the most, if not the most serious tense political situations on earth. There is no other
place in the world where all three elements of a genuine foreign policy crisis come so
fully into harmony; clear, inarguable, nuclear war capacities, a reliable delivery
system, and outright hostility to the United States and its close allies. Not even Iran's
nuclear ambitions compare to North Korea's proven, fully mature, nuclear
capabilities.

The Far East has two of America's strongest and most economically and politically
stable allies in the world in South Korea and Japan. Likewise it has one of America's
strongest self-avowed enemies in nuclear-armed North Korea, and one of America's
biggest foreign policy challenges in the mighty, growing, developing, expansionist
world power, China.

China, like North Korea, can by no stretch be put in the US allies column. We face
serious opposition with China in all areas including economic, military, and political;
Economically with the obvious liquidity and debt imbalance we criminally brought on
ourselves. Militarily in such vital areas geopolitically as the South China Sea, and with
the permanent hair-trigger nervousness related to US military commitment to Taiwan.
Politically, these two world powers vie for influence in arenas such as Africa, Syria and
the Middle, East and elsewhere while sidelining the U.S. and Western allies.


But bBecause the United States descended religiously from the Middle East, and
culturally from Europe in its inception, Americans have tended naturally to be
oriented eastward, and by default this translates into our obsession with dysfunction
and instability in the Middle East. Of course, the geopolitical force of petroleum
production in the region has and continues to fuels the outsized devotion to this
region in the fragile net of our foreign policy considerations.

A plain, unbiased gaze however, would provide clear evidence that a Westward
orientation, and serious devotion to the Pacific Rim holds every bit the same urgency
for our future and should properly spark equal intensity in its demand for American
foreign policy attention.

The evolving, deep seriousness crisis of the Pacific Rim requires urgent, practical and
structural reorientation in American, political impulses and mentality.

American Pacific states from including California to , Alaska and including from San
Diego to Anchorage, and Hawaii need increasingly to be recognized as having ever
                 Changes in the North Pacific and American Politics [or Lisa's
                                                     recommended title]
                                                                   by Frank Kaufmann, 01/13/13
                                                                                       PAGE 3
greater ballast and significance in America's political future. This region needs to
grow in the assumption of gravitas and “centrality” in the American political mind,
and slowly acquire the same status and unexamined presumption of political
importance for Americans as does the old-century's habits of mind when we think of
Washington DC and the Northeastern United States.

Secondly, we quickly need ever more Asian descent political leaders in US positions of
leadership, both elected, and among political appointees. And bBy this I mean not
only American through and through people who happen to be “Asian” only when
you open your eyes, but more particularly, Asian candidates and appointments
whose orientation, identity, impulses, causes, and insights are tied specifically to the
concerns and cultures of Asian communities and nations.

Of course aggressive pursuit of greater integration into American politics must come
from within the Asian communities themselves, but additionally all Americans
especially those who are politically engaged, savvy, and powerful must invest in
creating a social, cultural, political environment in with such candidates are
welcomed and encouraged, and where candidates for important appointments are
strongly considered. We all know that political access remains an unnecessarily
closed club in America even to this day.

The need for insights unique to Asian-Americans, most especially to influence
reflection on the Pacific Rim and development of related US foreign policy in this area
is unarguably urgent at this time.

The political party that accomplishes this orientation in its ranks, and gains strength
with strong political presence and force in the Western states is the one that will lead
the American future more energetically and will come to hold greater importance in
future political directions of the United States. This is true not only in response to the
pressing foreign policy demands created by the needed battle for balance of power
and stability in the Pacific Rim region at the moment, but as much so for the obviously
boggling world of opportunity both economically and culturally rooted there in the
Pacific Rim. How great it would be for America and its leaders to act with a little
foresight for a change, and do far better in this theater than we have in creating and
persisting with our reckless entanglements elsewhere.