Thread: China Can't Afford to Let North Korea Fail, Lee Says

Courtesy Bloomberg:

China Can't Afford to Let North Korea Fail, Lee Says (Update1)
2006-09-05 20:20 (New York)


(Adds Lee's comment on North Korea in sixth paragraph.)

By Angus Whitley and Chua Kong Ho
Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- China cannot afford to let the North
Korean regime collapse because the communist state functions as a
buffer from U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, said Lee Kuan
Yew, the founder of modern Singapore.
A failure of Kim Jong Il's regime would lead to ``refugees,
all kinds of problems, but most important, a buffer state is
gone,'' Lee said late yesterday at a conference in Singapore.
South Korea would take over and U.S. troops would be able to move
north to China's border, he said.

Lee, who expressed views on a range of global trouble spots,
also said Taiwan had ``no choice'' but to be a part of integrated
China. He urged Taiwan not to do anything ``stupid'' that might
trigger intervention by China.

North Korea, under U.S. sanctions, has refused to return to
six-party talks aimed at ending the nation's nuclear program. The
governments of China and Taiwan, administered separately since
the end of a 10-year civil war in 1949, have been diplomatic and
political foes for half a century, bickering over their claims of
sovereignty.

China, the only nation that holds influence over North Korea,
doesn't want the smaller communist state to develop a nuclear
weapon because that would make China's own arsenal less potent,
Lee said.

``It's a messy business,'' he said. The North Korean
authorities must be aware the regime ``cannot last,'' Lee said.

Supporting Role

Lee, 82, who holds the position of Minister Mentor in the
Singapore government, said the 10-nation Association of Southeast
Asian Nations, or Asean, had no choice but to play a supporting
role for China, India and Japan. Singapore, an island nation of
4.3 million people, can ``make a living'' by helping others do
business in the region.

``We have to accept that, but it doesn't mean the end of the
world for us,'' said Lee, who was being interviewed by Steve
Forbes, chief executive of Forbes Magazine. ``We are good
facilitators. That's our job.''

Formed in 1967, Asean comprises a combined population of 558
million and total trade exceeding $1 trillion. Members are
Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines,
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

China is home to the world's largest population and the
fastest-growing major economy. U.S. prevalence won't last forever,
Lee said. It will ``definitely'' continue for three decades,
though the country may not be dominant in 100 years, Lee said.

Islamic Parties

Lee also called for a worldwide coalition against
``radical'' Islam and warned of a ``clash of civilizations''
should such Islamic parties came to power in Muslim countries.

Singapore's neighbors Indonesia and Malaysia are
predominantly Muslim. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim
population and has suffered suicide attacks by Muslim extremists,
including bombs in the tourist resort of Bali in October 2002.
Anger over U.S. support of Israel in the Middle East means
that moderate leaders in Muslim countries are reluctant to take a
stand against extremists for fear of alienating segments of their
populations, he said.

``If the non-Muslim world plays it deftly and does not push
the moderates into too defensive a position, the radicals will
lose,'' he added.

--Editor: Tighe

Story illustration: See {TOP <GO>} for top stories and
{TOP SAS <GO>} for top stories in South and Southeast Asia.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Angus Whitley in Singapore at (65) 6212 1352 or
awhitley1@bloomberg.net
Chua Kong Ho in Singapore at (65) 6212 1153 or
kchua6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Paul Tighe at (612) 9777-8626 or
ptighe@bloomberg.net;
Adrian Kennedy at (65) 6212-1513 or
adkennedy@bloomberg.net.

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