Waiting for Beijing’s clout

North Korea has once again stirred up trouble with illegal acts and murderous violence. No sooner had it embroiled three Asean nations in its literally toxic assassination of the dear leader’s half-brother in Malaysia than it started yet another round of ballistic missile tests. Assassination by VX nerve agent is of course illegal. But so, by United Nations order, is firing ballistic missiles directly at Japan, its second provocative act in less than two months. There’s one missing piece in this dangerous situation, and China should be rushing to fill it.

Beijing has taken a step into this issue, so tentative it was hardly noticed. The Chinese foreign ministry last week suggested that North Korea should end its testing of nuclear weapons and ever more-capable missiles. It said that if Pyongyang did this, then perhaps the US and South Korea would quickly end their Foal Eagle war games, currently under way in the South. None of the three countries responded to this quite unimaginative Chinese proposal.

What is true is that the North Korean propaganda machine has been once again cranked up to full volume. It has savagely attacked Malaysia. This takes Pyongyang’s outlandish behaviour to uncharted levels. Malaysia was one of the few countries in the world to allow North Koreans to come and go without any visa. Malaysians have small but significant investments in North Korea, and the Kim Jungun regime does business in Malaysia — some of it exposed in the press as illegal.

By all available and credible evidence, North Korean government agents plotted and supervised the assassination of Kim Jung-sam, the North Korean leader’s brother by a different mother. The assassination was by VX nerve agent, which induces an agonising death within minutes. Two other Asean citizens, Vietnamese and Indonesian entertainment workers, carried out the actual killing, apparently believing it was a TV prank.

North Korea blames Malaysia, says the victim was not Kim Jung-sam and that he died of a heart attack. This of course beggars belief since North Korean officials have had no role in the investigation, by their own choice. Instead, North Korea has taken every Malaysian in the country as a human hostage in the case. The last time a dictator took hostages was Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, in an attempt to prevent bombing of his military facilities. World outrage forced him to back down.

Then North Korea fired ballistic missiles that landed in Japanese waters. Japan went on full military alert. The US began to deploy an anti-missile defence system known as THAAD for Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence. China has already protested against this weapon system. With all the elements in place for China to take a leadership role, Beijing faltered.

Beijing has nurtured North Korea for so long, the Kim dynasty is seen worldwide as a Chinese protectorate. China once again stopped importing North Korean coal, as it did last year, but this has already been shown as little more than a token protest at its ally’s aggressive and bellicose actions.

China wants global respect and a role as international steward. Thus its response to the actions of North Korea is quite disappointing. President Xi Jinping’s administration can no longer fall back credibly on its old claim of helplessness because of non-interference in other countries’ affairs.

China wants and indeed needs a non-nuclear Korean peninsula to move forward. So does the rest of Asia. Countries including Thailand must look to China to earn the leadership role it says it deserves.

China wants global respect and a role as international steward. Thus its response to the actions of North Korea is quite disappointing.