NAPSNet 30 June 2011

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NAPSNet 30 June 2011

GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Jeju naval base, government blind to conflict in Gangjeung village, Nocut News (21 June 2011) [Korean Language]

Recent military developments in South Korea and Japan have aggravated the growing divide between civil society and government, resulting in civil society groups becoming more vocal in their discontent. On June 21, in South Korea, opponents to a naval base currently under construction in Gangjeung Village on Jeju Island demonstrated. The Japanese government, in response to China’s growing military might, broke from its former agreement to close the US Naval Base at Okinawa and instead extended the agreement.

AUSTRAL SECURITY: Planners make the case for US bases, Australian (25 June 2011)

Chinese military activities continue to aggravate tensions in Asia Pacific prompting US-Australian defense forces to re-evaluate their alliance. In their analysis Yoshihara and Holmes explore the new face of an arms race in the region while Heinrichs et al. examine the “drivers of Asia’s growing maritime ‘crisis of confidence’” and prospects for confidence building.

DETERRENCE: Integration and separation of nuclear and non-nuclear planning and forces, in the eyes of the experts, USIP Press (2009) [PDF, 3.1MB]

“In fact, in planning for conflict with [North] Korea, the combined conventional force superiority of South Korea and the US was so great that there were plans to fight through limited North Korean use of chemical weapons of mass destruction without necessarily retaliating with nuclear weapons.”

ENERGY SECURITY:  South Korea in focus: The politics of spent fuel storage and disposal, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May/June 2011)

Jungmin Kang notes that spent fuel pools at all four of the South Korea’s nuclear plants will be critically short of space within ten years.  The disposition of spent fuel is becoming an important political issue, particularly as the impacts of the Fukushima accident make vulnerability of spent fuel pools a serious public concern.  Policies that allow dry-cask storage, with development of deep borehole disposal in the longer term, are options.

DPRK: The Rason economic and trade zone to adopt the Singapore model, IFES NK brief (25 June 2011)

The DPRK’s Committee of Investment and Joint Venture described the Rason special economic zone as an “entrepot port”, comparing it to Singapore. The KCNA statement on the Hwanggumphyong and Wihwa Islands SEZ noted the benefits to the “China-DPRK friendship” in addition to the economic benefits to the DPRK. There was a heightened emphasis on bilateral relations in this statement compared to the 2002 articles on the Sinuiju, Kaesong, and Mt. Kumgang SEZs.

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate risk and business: ports, IFC, World Bank Group (2011) [5.32 MB, PDF]

Stenek et al. look at climate change impacts and adaptation options in ports, focusing on the specific case study of Terminal Maritimo Muelles El Bosque (MEB) in Cartagena, Colombia. They examine both the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on MEB operations. The authors wrap up with specific adaptation options, including: elevating infrastructure; increasing drainage; expanding operations relating to climate-resilient economic activities; and increasing insurance coverage.       

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