What Motivates North Korea and China's Aggression?
Kim Jong-un explicitly labeled South Korea as an 'enemy' while proclaiming that the mass production of tactical nuclear weapons is indispensable to its security. North Korea has also escalated tensions by repeatedly sending its drones into South Korea’s airspace. With tensions simmering on the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan Talks compares the risk of war between South Korea and Taiwan, as both nations work with the U.S. to enhance their self-defense capabilities. We look at what extent China is extorting influence over North Korea, and whether increased military cooperation with the U.S. and Japan could trigger further aggression from Pyongyang and Beijing. In this episode, Vincent Chao, Taipei City Councilor and former Director of the Political Division at Taiwan’s Representative Office in the U.S., and Uyghur democracy activist, Wu’er Kaixi, one of the student leaders in the 1989 Tiananmen student movement, discuss rising authoritarian aggression in the region and what this means for Taiwan’s security. We also hear from Korea-based Taiwanese correspondent Yang Chien-hao, on how President Yoon Suk-yeol is walking a fine line between the U.S and China, in deterring North Korea while his government, increasingly, but discreetly, is working with Taiwan. Military expert Rick Fisher, International Assessment and Strategy Center Asian Military Affairs Senior Fellow, talks about the message Taiwan sends to the world with conscription reform, and remaining hard work around making sure Xi Jinping thinks twice before invading the island nation.
