The international tension associated with feelings of “what’s
next” associated with the presumed accession to the North Korean leadership by Kim
Jong-il’s little-known son and nominated heir Kim Jong-un, has been accompanied
by a well-meaning statement (see here)
by Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, addressed
no doubt to Beijing, that
It is vital that all those
with influence on Pyongyang reinforce the need for calm and restraint.
Best of luck. I am
reminded of a somewhat more direct appeal to the Chinese leadership in relation
to North Korea when I visited China as a member of Bob Hawke’s delegation in
February 1984. This was just four months
after the notorious Rangoon Bombing in which the North Koreans made an assassination
attempt against South Korean President Choon Doo-hwan, who was visiting Rangoon
with a large delegation. Choon was to
lay a wreath at the Maryr’s Mausoleum to commemorate Aung San, architect of
Burmese Independence (and father of Aung San Suu Kyi), who was assassinated in
1947.
A bomb concealed in the roof of the mausoleum failed to kill
Choon, but it killed 21 people, including three senior South Korean politicians
and 14 Presidential Advisers, and injured 46 others.
Our last port of call had been Seoul, including a meeting
with the intended victim of the Rangoon Bombing, and we had flown directly from
Seoul to Beijing in the RAAF B-707 – a rare event in those days of minimal
contact between China and South Korea, and we had been escorted to the limits
of South Korean air space by South Korean fighters. In the meetings with the Chinese leadership
the subject of our time in Seoul was touched upon and Bob Hawke took advantage
of the opportunity to urge the Chinese leadership to attempt to prevail upon
the North Koreans to respect the norms of civilised international behaviour. The Chinese leaders didn’t say anything much
by way of response – no quotable quotes – but the way the roll of the eyes, the
shrug of the shoulders and the upturned palms told you everything you needed to
know. The Chinese were claiming no
influence over the behaviour of the North Koreans. All that was almost 28 years ago, but I don’t
think that situation has changed.
During our stay in Beijing we were quartered in a couple of
villas in the Diaoyutai State Guest House, a large compound with a series of
detached villas set in nice gardens with ornamental pools etc. Every evening in that safest of cities that
1984 Beijing was, the PLA man on the front gate locked the gate, after which
you needed a pass to come and go. As it happened
the only other guests in Diaoyutai at that time were the North Korean Foreign
Minister and Party, in an adjacent villa.
I couldn’t help remarking to Bob and my colleagues one evening that the
only people in Beijing who might possibly have a go at us were locked in with
us.
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