Pelosi’s Latest Drama — Underlining America’s Commitment at the Korean Demilitarized Zone

SEOUL — On the day that China was staging its biggest, most intimidating exercises in the waters and skies around Taiwan, Speaker Pelosi chose to dramatize America’s commitment on an entirely different front: North Korea.This might be because, while the DMZ is one of the tensest places on Earth and the nearby planets, it’s relatively more pleasant than the House of Representatives, where the speaker usually reports to work.The speaker’s 10-vehicle convoy of limousines and support vehicles departed almost immediately for the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas after she chatted for 40 minutes by phone with South Korea’s president, Yook Suk-yeol, who is “on vacation.”Unlike every other official American ever known to go to the truce village of Panmunjom, 40 miles north of here, Ms. Pelosi shunned publicity and was not seen live on camera staring across the North-South line.Her visit contrasted with that of the most recent high-level American visitor to Panmunjom, President Trump. In the last of his three meetings with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the former president chatted with Mr Kim for 40 minutes right there in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone that’s divided the two Koreas since the Korean War ended with the signing of an armistice on July 27, 1953.The reason why China was off the table during Ms. Pelosi’s stopover here undoubtedly was that the South Korean officials really didn’t want her talking about her sortie, before getting here, to the island state of Taiwan.Korean officials especially didn’t want to have to discuss the expanded military exercises the Chinese are staging in the waters around Taiwan in obvious retaliation for her having visited the place in defiance of China’s oft-stated demands for her to stay away.The Chinese decision to shower the waters around Taiwan in six places with artillery shells, missiles, and machine gun fire during Mrs. Pelosi’s visit to Korea, her fourth stop on her week-long journey through East Asia, was not mentioned by Mrs. Pelosi or any of the five other members of Congress in her entourage. Rather, in their telephone conversation, the speaker and Mr. Yoon had, to public appearances, only one problem on their minds: North Korea.Mr. Yoon, not mentioning China or Taiwan, said in his conversation with her that her visit to Panmunjom symbolized “U.S.-ROK [Republic of Korea] deterrence against North Korea,” according to an aide.Mrs. Pelosi may have wanted to broaden the topic a little, maybe veer onto Taiwan, when she urged South Korea to join in “a free and open Indo-Pacific order” in the interests of “peace and prosperity” in Asia. Mr. Yoon, fearful of offending China, did not respond to what looked like an attempt to bring the subject of Taiwan into the discussion.Not that Mrs. Pelosi was unaware of what was going on around the island. For the next few days, at least, China’s show of force will block access to the island by air and sea, and she’s sure to have been fully briefed.No, the Chinese aren’t shooting to hurt anyone, and theoretically ships and planes can move in and out, but that definitely would not be a good idea in a volatile situation in which anything might happen. The purpose of the war games clearly was to show the Americans and Taiwanese what they could do if they chose to try to take over the island by force.At the same time, China’s president, Xi Jinping, was no doubt eager to demonstrate his power in advance of the upcoming party congress in November where he’s almost sure to be elected to a third term.Considering all the sensitivities, there seemed to have been a preliminary understanding, before Mrs. Pelosi got to Seoul, that she would stay off the subject of Taiwan.Before Mrs. Pelosi talked to Mr. Yoon, she had a long session with the speaker of South Korea’s unicameral national assembly, Kim Jin-pyo. In a brief mutual appearance inside the capitol building, they said they focused on stuff like security, economics and governing their respective countries. The word “Taiwan” did not come up between them, at least in public, and Mrs. Pelosi would not take questions.Mrs. Pelosi and her entourage were due to take off in the evening for Tokyo, the last stop on a tour that had begun with a night and a day in Singapore, then on to Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, and Seoul. She might be a little more talkative about Taiwan in Tokyo, where the conservative leadership is for a tough stance against Communist China’s advances in the region.

Pelosi’s Latest Drama — Underlining America’s Commitment at the Korean Demilitarized Zone

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