Ex-US Diplomat Says North Korea ‘Dangerous’ If Ignored

The former U.S. envoy to North Korea says the Obama administration must continue to engage with Pyongyang, even if goes through with a rocket launch scheduled for this month.

Stephen Bosworth told VOA's Korean Service this week that the United States has always made clear to the North Koreans that it is opposed to the regime launching a long-range missile, regardless of its reasons.

“It's been clear I think from the beginning, from the beginning of this latest effort at re-engagement, that the United States would not accept North Korean assertion that an attempted satellite launch was not a long-range missile test. This is an argument they tried to use before and we rejected it in 2009. It is a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, so I think that the outcome was predetermined.”

Pyongyang claims the launch is aimed at placing a weather satellite in orbit, as part of the celebration of the 100th birthday of the late North Korean founder, Kim Il Sung.

The United States has already said it will withhold food aid to the North if it goes through with the launch, as Bosworth believes it will. Washington won an agreement from North Korea in February for it to suspend all nuclear activities and long-range ballistic missile launches, in exchange for sending the impoverished nation 240,000 tons of food.

Bosworth says there will not be “a lot of appetite” for more negotiations in the near future if the missile launch goes ahead, as he believes it will. But he says the administration must keep its lines of communication with North Korea open, simply because there are no good options to resolve the matter.

“Well, I think it is a mistake to try to leave North Korea in a position where they have no stake in ongoing discussions. When they're left unattached, they tend to do other dangerous things.”

Bosworth resumed his position as dean of Tufts University's law school in Boston in October after serving as U.S. envoy to nuclear talks with North Korea for two and a half years.

ASEAN Leaders Open Two-Day Summit in Cambodia

Within the region, although the development gap among ASEAN members has been noticeably narrow, it is still huge. This requires to double our efforts to promote further growth and improve equitable distribution of the fruits of growth at both the national and the regional among members countries.”

The official agenda stresses talks on ASEAN's goal of developing a European-style single market within the next three years. But several of the participants have acknowledged the leaders will not be able to avoid discussions on pressing security issues.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all claim parts of the potentially resource-rich South China Sea, putting them at odds with Beijing, which claims all of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway. The Philippines and Vietnam have both accused Chinese vessels of intruding into their exclusive economic zones and disrupting oil exploration activities.

Manila has called for a summit of nations with claims on the South China Sea in order to reach an agreement on the use of the seas.

Meanwhile, several ASEAN members have raised concerns about North Korea's planned rocket launch this month. Pyongyang says the rocket will place a weather satellite into orbit, but the United States and other nations say the real purpose of the launch is to test a missile that could deliver a nuclear weapon.

During a preliminary meeting Monday, ASEAN foreign ministers praised Burma over its handling of parliamentary by-elections that saw democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi win her first seat in parliament. Her National League for Democracy party won at least 40 of the 44 seats it contested in the April 1 balloting.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Spain's jobless level hits record 4.75 million

The number of Spanish jobseekers rose for the eighth month in a row in March to hit a record 4.75 million.

The Labour Ministry said the number of people filing for unemployment benefits rose by 38,769 with the services sector seeing the most jobs lost.

The jobless rate in Spain stood at 23.6% in February, according to EU figures released on Monday.

The situation is even worse for young Spaniards as youth unemployment is running at 50%.

Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union and it is expected to rise further this year.

The government hopes that reform to the labour market will help ease the problem.

Its measures include cutting back on severance pay and restricting inflation-linked salary increases.

But those measures have angered unions, who organised a general strike last Thursday.

Secretary of State for Employment Engracia Hidalgo said in a statement: "We continue to face an unsatisfactory situation of an increase in the number of people registered as unemployed.

"This is why it is necessary to reiterate the importance of creating confidence and flexibility for companies, as was done with the labour law reform."

'Extreme situation'

The unemployment situation is likely to be made worse by deep cuts in government spending.

On Friday the government said that 27bn euros ($36bn; £22.5bn) would be cut from the 2012 budget. Departmental budgets will be cut by almost 17%.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said on Friday the nation was in an "extreme situation".

"This is a moment that demands serious efforts to reduce spending but also structural reforms to cause the economy to grow and create jobs," she said.

The budget will be presented to Parliament later on Tuesday.