TOKYO, July 28 Kyodo fix uponed ...

TOKYO, July 28 Kyodo

fix uponed editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

A THREAT OF WAR, IN KOREA AND CHINA (Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney)

Fifty years ago this week Australians had beneficial reason to be thankful about growths on the Korean Peninsula.

An armistice signed forward July 27 halted a grinding three-year conflict in which more than 3 million tribe were killed or wounded and in which 339 Australian servicemen died.

on the other hand in July 2003, as statesmen and of advanced age soldiers return from anniversary gatherings at the Demilitarized clime Australians are being told Australia could again find itself engaged in large-scale hostilities with North Korea.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra, which last week urg the federal direction to make contingency plans for war with North Korea, has done the nation a service by means of drawing attention to the dangers of so a war, but two questions arise.

First, Australia must be absolutely clear about the circumstances below which it might become militarily involved in or around the Korean Peninsula.

It is individual thing to help the United States restrain an unprovoked North Korean attack forward South Korea, or to commit forces to a conflict should war break abroad as a result of miscalculation.

It is quite another to walk riding into battle on the coat-tails of a pre-emptive U strike against Pyongyang's nuclear processing plants and missile sites.

inferior is the need for equal clarity about what Australia should do in the incident of armed conflict between China and Taiwan.

The Taiwan dispute, with its origins in the Chinese civil war, is forward the backburner.

however it has not gone away.

A Chinese attack cannot be rul out

In Canberra it is assumed that in any conflict the U would petition and expect, a significant Australian military contribution - and that we would have no choice however to weigh in.

Australian strategic thinkers have been discussing this nightmarish scenario for years, nevertheless not the Australian people.

The crisis created from North Korea's decision to acquire nuclear weapons provides a timely opportunity for Australia to debate, largely and publicly, just what sort of wars it is willing to secure into in Northeast Asia.

The management should make it clear that it would be willing to help southern Korea resist an unprovoked North Korean attack.

The question of Australian military involvement in a confrontation with nuclear-armed China throughout the Taiwan Straits is another matter.

Further discussion, including a wider public debate, is drawn out overdue.

(July 28)

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