The World from Berlin.....'North Korea Seems To Have a Sort of Death Wish'

This week, international investigators determined that a North Korean torpedo was responsible for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March that resulted in the deaths of 46 sailors. German commentators say China, as Pyongyang's sole protector, holds the keys to resolving the conflict.

On Thursday, an international team investigating the sinking of a South Korean military patrol boat on March 26 announced the results of their work: They claim that the Cheonan corvette, a 1,200-ton gunboat, had been sunk by a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine. The investigators had found part of the torpedo on the sea floor, which had lettering that indicated it came from North Korea. The sinking occurred near the highly sensitive maritime border between the two states and resulted in the deaths of 46 sailors.

Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the two nations have had a ceasefire agreement in place, and, in 1991, both signed a nonaggression and reconciliation pact. The March attack violated these agreements.

The South Korean leadership was quick to express outrage and condemn the aggressive military actions while the North Korean regime questioned the accuracy of the report and said it would send its own team of investigators to verify the findings.

International Condemnation

The nations' two biggest patrons -- China and the United States -- were also quick to react. China, a neighbor upon which North Korea is heavily dependent due to international sanctions, urged restraint but did not directly criticize the North Koreans. Officials in the US, a longtime backer of South Korea, said they supported the investigators' findings and that they would consult with the South Korean administration over how best to proceed.

Military reprisals seem highly unlikely. Instead, South Korea is expected to take the findings of the investigation to the United Nations Security Council in the hope of winning support for further tightening sanctions against North Korea. Kim Jong Il's regime is already the subject of UN sanctions because of its development of nuclear weapons.

Countries around the world have sternly condemned Pyongyang over the incident, with British Foreign Secretary William Hague saying the incident would deepen international mistrust of North Korea. And, in a statement, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama described the action as "unforgivable."

In Germany, the question of why North Korea would take such overtly aggressive action gave rise to much speculation, as well as predictions about what might happen next. Local commentators also felt that any punishment for North Korea depended upon Chinese reactions.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The sinking of the Cheonan was no mistake and neither is it a trifle. When one warship attacks another warship, then that is an act of war. Reason and political prudence demand that South Korea not react to this provocation in a similarly aggressive way. After all, South Korea does not want a war -- why would it? The highly militarized nation of North Korea, with its concrete ideology, won't be forced into anything. That intuition means that South Korea must act with greater political cunning. Public anger is simmering, the more radical political parties are calling for revenge and the democratic system there is under pressure."

"So why would North Korea do such a thing? The answers to this central question are always the same -- and they always get lost in the end in speculation. In North Korea one sees the remains of a crumbling system that is really only held together by pressure from the outside world. International pressure can come in handy if a dictator is preparing to hand over power to a successor, as it bonds the military and security apparatus together, preventing them from splitting into rival factions that could go on the attack during a transition. And that is exactly what is happening now."

"And now this (international) pressure will increase dramatically. The UN Security Council will get involved and there may be further sanctions against North Korea. South Korea will cut off all ties and the six-party-talks (an effort to resolve security concerns that have arisen as a result of North Korea's nuclear weapons program) won't happen. But China is the only country that could change anything in this situation. This time, it cannot ignore the brutal acts committed by its ward. Trade, raw materials, political patronage -- without China, North Korea would implode. It may well be that the Chinese leaders are no longer able to steer the regime in Pyongyang. But it can certainly influence a changeover in power."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"One must ask: What could have led the regime in Pyongyang to do this? There must be some reason -- over the past few years, Kim Jong Il and the people around him haven't given the impression that they are prone to irrational acts. One theory that fits is that, through military provocation, Pyongyang wanted to stoke up tensions to demonstrate the urgent necessity for negotiations with the other side."

"Not even the coldest of Cold War warriors in South Korea foresees military retribution. The south has far too much to lose. The only face-saving path for South Korea leads to New York. The country must present the findings of research by its international experts to the UN. It must also hope that the Security Council will condemn and perhaps even push through effective sanctions against the aggressor."

"The case will rest -- once again -- with China. The People's Republic cannot endorse the sinking of this ship. It is certain it will not. But a Chinese condemnation of North Korea also seems doubtful in light of events of the past week. From the Chinese perspective, there is too much to lose. North Korea is so well isolated from the rest of the world that its dependence on China is overwhelming. A North Korean regime that is stable internally, even though it is hardly satisfying externally, presents a lot of opportunities for China. Beijing may now be speculating that, one day, the northern half of the peninsula will fall under its direct area of influence."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"The guilty party has reacted with typically hawkish rhetoric that -- in light of a languishing economy, hopelessly inferior armaments and international isolation -- it really cannot afford. And one cannot rule out the possibility that, during course of North Korea's saber-rattling, the world will see a batch of new missiles and nuclear tests. This is how a weak and struggling regime sidesteps its real problems in order to retain power and to avoid implosion."

"North Korea seems to have a sort of death wish. Which is why the international community -- and, above all, China as Pyongyang's sole mentor -- can no longer allow these constant skirmishes between north and south to continue. Given that more than a million soldiers are stationed on each side of the border, provocation must be punished. There is a lot to be gained if this evidence (of the sinking of the ship by North Korea) could convince China of that. China seems to be the only nation that has access to the autistic, authoritarian clique that makes up the Kim Jong-Il regime. China's reputation as a superpower-in-waiting is at stake."

International