South Korea wimps out on inspections

AP/Houston Chronicle:

South Korea balked today at Washington's demand that it fully join a U.S.-led effort to intercept North Korean ships suspected of carrying supplies for the North's nuclear and missile weapons programs.

The South insisted that it was already doing enough to stem possible weapons proliferation from North Korea — which detonated a nuclear bomb on Oct. 9 — and announced no new measures to sanction the North under a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the test.

The decision underscored Seoul's reluctance to anger Pyongyang and complicated efforts to resolve the standoff over the North's nuclear program now that the communist regime has agreed to return to long-stalled international nuclear disarmament talks.

"It's basically not necessary to take (new) measures," Park In-kook, a deputy foreign minister, said at a news briefing, citing "the unique circumstances" on the Korean peninsula as motivating the South's decision not to fully join the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, or PSI.

Seoul has joined the initiative aimed largely at stopping North Korean weapons traffic at sea, which has gained new impetus since the North's nuclear test, only as an observer out of concern that its stopping and searching North Korean ships could lead to armed clashes with North Korea.

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Cowardice will not resolve the situation with North Korea. The Norks are determined to push their nukes and South Korea plays into their hand by refusing to take the necessary steps to stop the Norks. If they do not get their act together, the US should consider removing its troops from South Korea.