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A U.S. global security pundit says the U.S. can mobilize the help of South Korea, China and Japan to get rid of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il within five years if it wants to. Thomas Barnett, the author of the widely discussed "The Pentagon's New Map" on Washington¡¯s future military strategy released in 2004, makes the suggestion in his follow-up "Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating" published last month.
An expert on the former Soviet Union and a former professor at the U.S. Naval War College, Barnett briefly served as a consultant in the Pentagon after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
In the new book, Barnett names China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Russia as potential members of a united front the U.S. can mobilize to handle North Korea, which he calls a useless organ left over from the Cold War. He claims China can be brought on board if Washington withdraws from its mutual defense treaty with Taiwan, while Japan will jump on the bandwagon if the U.S. and China join hands. Australia and New Zealand could be invited to play stabilizing roles in Asia, and Russia could be asked to connect gas pipelines from the Korean Peninsula to Japan after the whole plan is complete.
Barnett offers three scenarios for the ouster Kim Jong-il. One would be to exile Kim to another country, much in the way that ¡°Baby Doc¡± Duvalier of Haiti was deposed. Another would be to put him before a tribunal in The Hague like Yugoslavia¡¯s Slobodan Milosevic, and the third option would be to threaten him with military attacks like the U.S. did in Iraq. Barnett already raised eyebrows with the previous book, which advocates aggressive U.S. military engagement after Sept. 11.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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