Asia

The regional security dynamic surrounding the Korean Peninsula is in flux. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton trekked to Pyongyang to free the two captive journalists, creating for the first time since the North’s May nuclear test an atmosphere conducive to dialogue.

On Aug. 11, 2009, Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty by a court in Myanmar of breaking the terms of her house arrest and sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest for harboring an American man, John William Yettaw, who swam to her house uninvited. This ruling signals to Southeast Asia and the international community that little progress has been made internally in the country.

Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, who died on Aug. 1 after a year-long battle with colon cancer, was laid in a “quasi-official ceremony” Aug. 5 after hundreds of thousands paid final respects to the unassuming former housewife who became an international icon for her role in restoring democracy in the Philippines in 1986.

If the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) wins the August 30 elections, the party’s luxury of opposing everything will be gone. Hence, it is now scrambling to decide how it would actually govern.

Editors Note: The following DPRK, ROK, and Chinese perspectives were offered at a recent meeting of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP) Study Group on Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and illustrate the wide differences that exist regarding Korean Peninsula denuclearization. These views are solely those of the individual authors.

The 15th annual Japan-U.S. Security Seminar convened amidst a ringing of alarm bells. A global economic crisis challenged the capability of states to sustain growth and prosperity and the philosophy that has dominated the postwar economic order.

After a decade in the wilderness, the return to power of South Korea’s conservative Grand National Party brings with it an increased willingness both to partner with the United States and to participate more fully in shaping the regional (and global) security environment.

Much of the media coverage of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s whirlwind five-day tour of Mumbai and New Delhi last month focused on high politics. The rebuff over climate policy issued by India’s environment minister has been well publicized, though his words seemed directed as much to the domestic audience as to Mrs. Clinton.