Friday Five: March 8, 2013

North Korea’s bizarre and provocation-filled 2013 has shifted to outright danger this week. Following an additional UN Security Council resolution after the DPRK’s latest nuclear test, the government of the North is threatening South Korea and President Park Geun-hye with nuclear war, reportedly dissolving the non-aggression pact with the ROK. CSIS Korea Chair experts Victor Cha, Ellen Kim, and Marie Dumond provide analysis of the key questions related to North Korean statements and breakdown the latest developments on the Korean Peninsula.

In Malaysia, the brother of  Jamalul Kiram III, the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu, led 200 hundred armed Filipinos into Malaysia’s Sabah state on February 11, sparking an ongoing conflict with Malaysian security forces that boiled over in the last week resulting in a firefight on March 1, a Malaysian air assault on March 5 and diplomatic maneuvering on both sides of the Sulu Sea. Scholars with the Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia studies analyze the impact of the conflict and whether the crisis with the Philippines will provide Malaysia’s Najib Razak an opportunity to postpone scheduled elections.

The Chinese government has convened the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) which will nearly finalize the Chinese leadership transition and announce who among the Chinese Communist Party’s leaders will fill state leadership roles. Freeman Chair in China Studies Chris Johnson explains what developments at the NPC mean for China’s economic and leadership outlook.

Citizens of India continue to react to the announcement of the government’s Union Budget and assess the details and their implications for specific economic sectors and agencies of the government.

On a lighter note, Japan rallied to victory 4-3 in extra innings against Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) at the 2013 World Baseball Classic earlier today. South Korea, Taiwan and the United States also remain in contention, with many games yet to play.

 

 

 

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