Ralph Cossa - The Japan Times

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Ralph Cossa

For Ralph Cossa's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Oct 21, 2002

Confessions from North Korea

SEOUL/PUSAN -- They say that a little bit of confession is good for the soul, but North Korea's sudden burst of religion is creating a moral dilemma for Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul. First, Pyongyang decides to come clean on the kidnapping of Japanese citizens, admitting to Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro that its agents did, as suspected, kidnap a number of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s and that most were now deceased. Then it confirms Washington's worst suspicions about its secret nuclear weapons program by confessing that it indeed has one, in direct violation of the 1994 U.S.-North Korean Agreed Framework, not to mention the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards Agreement, and the 1992 Joint North-South Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. What's going on here?

COMMENTARY

Sep 21, 2002

Underestimating the players

SEOUL -- The success of Tuesday's Japan-North Korea summit in Pyongyang shows just how much critics underestimated both Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Both demonstrated a considerable amount of diplomatic skill, and courage, during this historic one-day meeting, which appears to have accomplished Tokyo's objective of getting the normalization process back on track.

COMMENTARY

Sep 18, 2002

Ball now in U.N. and Baghdad's court

HONOLULU -- When it comes to dealing with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, U.S. President George W. Bush's Sept. 12 speech to the United Nations General Assembly has finally put the ball back where it belongs: first in the U.N.'s and then in Baghdad's court . . . and how the former acts will largely determine how Hussein and ultimately the Bush administration responds.

COMMENTARY

Sep 13, 2002

Koizumi gambles for results

I'm not sure whether to be cautiously optimistic or pessimistic about Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to North Korea next Tuesday, but either way, "caution" is the watchword.

COMMENTARY

Aug 28, 2002

'Sweet and sour' diplomacy

HONOLULU -- "U.S.-North Korean military meet to reduce tensions." "North Korea threatens to withdraw from nuclear agreement with U.S."

COMMENTARY

Aug 9, 2002

Surprise ups Taiwan's risks

HONOLULU -- "No surprises." This was one of the pledges Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian made to Washington, both at the time of his inauguration and again after his Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, made a better-than-expected showing in the December 2001 parliamentary elections and formed a virtual alliance with the even more independence-prone Taiwan Solidarity Union (which looks to former President Lee Teng-hui for guidance and inspiration).

COMMENTARY

Jul 30, 2002

Asian multilateralism takes on new energy

HONOLULU -- Multilateral dialogue seems to be taking on new energy in Asia. Not since 1993 -- when foreign ministers attending the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference held a separate breakfast session to discuss security issues and decided to establish the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum -- has there been such a flurry of activity.

COMMENTARY

Jul 17, 2002

Washington sends Pyongyang a message

HONOLULU -- Will the United States and North Korea ever sit down and talk? In all probability, yes. But the odds remain strong that the dialogue, when and if it happens, will largely remain a dialogue of the deaf.

COMMENTARY

Jul 3, 2002

South Korea and Japan emerge victorious in World Cup

Listening to the South Korea fans cheering "Dae-han-min-guk" (Republic of Korea) after their World Cup match against Germany on June 25 and watching fireworks light up the Seoul skyline, it was hard to realize that the South Korean team had lost its semifinal match.

COMMENTARY

Jun 19, 2002

Key South Asia concern being ignored

HONOLULU -- Senior American envoys like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage deserve praise for their seemingly successful efforts to move India and Pakistan back from the brink of war once again. As history has brutally demonstrated, even a conventional armed conflict between these two South Asia adversaries would cause untold human suffering on both sides. It would also seriously detract from Washington's continuing war against terrorism and could even put U.S. military forces based in Pakistan directly at risk. But alarmist reporting notwithstanding, the current confrontation was and is not likely to denigrate into a nuclear confrontation.

COMMENTARY

May 31, 2002

Closer cooperation benefits all

HONOLULU -- The scheduled appearance of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Jiang Zemin alongside South Korean President Kim Dae Jung at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 World Cup in Seoul later this month symbolizes much more than mere cooperation on the field of athletic competition; it also underscores Seoul's unique role as a bridge between Tokyo and Beijing and the importance the Kim regime has rightly placed in maintaining good relations with both its giant neighbors.

COMMENTARY

May 11, 2002

A recipe for reconciliation

TAIPEI -- British writer George Bernard Shaw once said that Americans and Brits were two peoples separated by the same language. This is an even more apt description when describing the Chinese and Taiwanese. A week of visits to Taiwan and China leaves me once again to marvel at how poorly two peoples who share a common language and heritage understand or communicate with one another.

COMMENTARY

Apr 27, 2002

Pyongyang prod that works

HONOLULU -- "Our firm stance toward North Korea is working!" So goes the conventional wisdom in Washington these days, as supporters of President George W. Bush's "hardline" policy claim credit for Pyongyang's recent decision to resume its dialogue with Seoul.

COMMENTARY

Mar 12, 2002

Asia changed little by 9-11

HONOLULU -- While the way Americans look at the world may have fundamentally changed since Sept. 11, the basic Asian issues confronting U.S. decision-makers remain largely unchanged. A look at regional concerns shows more similarities than differences to those that existed before Sept. 11.

COMMENTARY

Mar 1, 2002

Revisiting the 'axis of evil'

HONOLULU -- Those of us who comment on U.S. foreign policy are deeply indebted to U.S. President George W. Bush for his State of the Union reference to North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as an "axis of evil." Never before have three simple (if not simplistic) words spawned so many editorials, fed so many talking heads and inspired so many protest placards. The only thing missing thus far is an associated scandal, which would of course be immediately dubbed "evilgate."

COMMENTARY

Feb 16, 2002

U.S.-Korea policy: now what?

HONOLULU -- Has U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to include North Korea in his "axis of evil" foreclosed the possibility of serious dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang? Not necessarily. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell maintains that Washington's earlier "any time, any place, without preconditions" offer for negotiations still stands and North Korea's U.N. ambassador, Pak Gil Yon, has now said that his nation is also receptive to dialogue with the United States "on an equal basis and without preconditions," if only the U.S. would quit being so hostile.

COMMENTARY

Feb 2, 2002

U.S. should help Philippines

HONOLULU -- Here they go again! Pundits who six months ago could not find Manila (much less Mindanao) on a map are now busily proclaiming the Philippines to be "the next Afghanistan" -- except, of course, those who are busy proclaiming it "the next Vietnam."

COMMENTARY

Jan 26, 2002

Bush gets it right in East Asia

HONOLULU -- As we mark the Bush administration's first anniversary, U.S.-East Asia relations, after an early rough start, appear on an upswing. The one exception is on the Korean Peninsula, where Pyongyang's refusal to take "yes" for an answer has resulted in a decline in U.S.-North Korean relations while adding stress to otherwise improved U.S.-South Korean relations as well.

COMMENTARY

Jan 10, 2002

Nuclear deployment danger

HONOLULU -- The handshake between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Nepal last Saturday caused an international sigh of relief as the two nuclear powers took a tentative step back from the brink of war. Tensions will remain high on the Indian subcontinent, however, as New Delhi waits to see if Islamabad follows through with its current crackdown on Kashmiri terrorist camps and havens in Pakistan.

COMMENTARY

Dec 27, 2001

The ABM Treaty's last days

HONOLULU -- It looks like the Antiballistic Missile Treaty is destined to end, not with a bang, but with a whimper. Earlier doomsday predictions notwithstanding, Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the treaty (the required six-months' notice was given Dec. 13) is not expected to usher in a new Cold War between the United States and Russia. Nor is it likely to undermine the other Soviet-era strategic arms reduction agreements, or to prompt a new arms race between the two nuclear giants.

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