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Biden, Yoon Signal Stronger Military Posture Against North Korean Threat

From Seoul, US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol signaled a stronger military posture amid a series of recent North Korean missile test launches. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara is traveling with the president and brings this report.
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North Korea, China Loom Large in Biden’s Visit in Seoul

U.S. President Joe Biden is in Seoul, South Korea, the first leg of his six-day trip to South Korea and Japan, meeting the newly inaugurated President Yoon Suk Yeol to highlight the U.S.-South Korea alliance and efforts to engage the region economically.

Upon landing at the U.S. Air Force’s Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, around 55 kilometers south of Seoul, Friday, Biden began immediately with a tour of the nearby Samsung Pyeongtaek Campus, the largest semiconductor plant in the world. The factory is a model for a $17 billion computer chip facility Samsung is building outside Austin, Texas.

In remarks following a tour of the plant showcasing the electronics company’s new 3-nanometer chips, Biden called the U.S-South Korea alliance “a lynchpin of peace, stability, and prosperity.” He and Yoon vowed to work together to strengthen supply chains of semiconductors and other critical components. There is currently a global shortage of chips – used in various electronic consumer goods and automobiles – aggravated by the pandemic.

Washington and Seoul are among each other’s largest trading and investment partners, with more than $62 billion of foreign direct investment by South Korean firms in the United States as of 2020.

The two leaders are meeting again Saturday, on a wider range of issues, including North Korea and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. The IPEF is the centerpiece of U.S. economic policy in the region since the Trump administration’s 2017 withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the free trade agreement the Obama administration launched in 2016.

While Seoul is unlikely to downgrade economic ties with Beijing, its support for the IPEF, the administration’s economic counteroffensive against China, is crucial.

“No one in Korea is talking about the economic isolation of China, that’s really not going to happen,” Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea specialist at King’s College London told VOA. Yoon, though, will be “much more vocal in making clear that Korea is joining these frameworks that we all know are anti-China,” he said.

The IPEF, scheduled to be launched Monday in Tokyo, has been criticized for its lack of market access provisions, making it less attractive than existing regional free trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan pushed back against the criticism, saying IPEF will provide a “huge thrust and momentum” to U.S. economic initiatives in the Indo-Pacific.

“This is going to be the new model of economic arrangement that will set the terms and rules of the road for trade and technology and supply chains for the 21st century,” he told VOA.

North Korea weapons test

U.S. officials have warned that South Korea’s belligerent northern neighbor may conduct another nuclear or missile test while Biden is in the region.

Bong Young-shik, a lecturer at Seoul’s Yonsei University said North Korea may use a test to grab the “full attention” of Biden and Yoon, however it won’t be the only focus. Yoon, who took office a little more than a week ago has signaled a tougher stance on Pyongyang than his predecessor.

“With or without another provocation by North Korea, the North Korean issue will be really high on the list of priority agendas for both leaders,” he told VOA.

After confirming its first case of COVID-19 last week, North Korean state media Saturday reported about 220,000 new cases of an unidentified “fever” said 66 people had died.

Experts fear the number of cases is much higher and could be disastrous for a country suffering from food shortages and having poor medical infrastructure. Pyongyang has not inoculated its population and has turned down vaccine donation offers from the U.N. COVAX program. It is unlikely to change its stance, Bong said.

“By accepting external assistance, especially from South Korea and the United States, the principle of the infallibility of the supreme leadership will be greatly damaged,” he said.

A senior administration official told reporters in a phone briefing that the U.S. is in discussions with China to look for ways to help North Korea as they deal with the outbreak.

China military flex

In Asia, Biden will reaffirm U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and use the Ukraine crisis to signal that unilateral change to the status quo by force – whether in Taiwan or the disputed islands in the South China Sea – is unacceptable.

However, there is little likelihood that Beijing might opportunistically move against Taiwan while the U.S. is focused on the Russian invasion, said Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United State. The enormous economic pressures brought on by the zero-COVID policy has led to growing public skepticism about the Chinese leadership.

“Xi Jinping faces strong domestic headwinds, he can’t face another failure,” Daly told VOA.

Still Xi is flexing his military prowess. Ahead of Biden’s arrival in Seoul Thursday, China announced it is holding military exercises in the disputed South China Sea. Beijing has militarized at least three of several islands it artificially built in the strategic waters, an aggressive move that concerns the U.S. and its allies.
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US Senate Race too Close to Call; Recount Likely

Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for an open U.S. Senate seat is too close to Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for an open U.S. Senate seat is too close to call and is likely headed for a statewide recount to decide the winner of the contest between heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick.

A recount would mean that the outcome of the race might not be known until June 8, the deadline for counties to report their results to the state.

Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by 1,079 votes, or 0.08 percentage points, out of 1,340,248 ballots counted as of 5 p.m. Friday. The race is close enough to trigger Pennsylvania’s automatic recount law, with the separation between the candidates inside the law’s 0.5% margin. The Associated Press will not declare a winner in the race until the likely recount is complete.

Both campaigns have hired Washington-based lawyers to lead their recount efforts, and both have hired Philadelphia-based campaign strategists who helped lead the operation to observe vote-counting on Election Day for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020.

The two campaigns had dozens of lawyers and volunteers fanned out around the presidential battleground state as election workers and election boards toiled through the remaining ballots.

The big field of Republican candidates and their super PACs reported spending more than $70 million during the primary campaign. The winner will face Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in November’s midterm elections in what Democrats see as their best opportunity to pick up a seat in the closely divided Senate.

Fetterman won the Democratic nomination while in the hospital recovering from a stroke four days before the election. The incumbent, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, is retiring after serving two terms.

Trump’s clout is again on the line, as he looked for a third straight win in Republican Senate primaries after “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance prevailed in Ohio earlier this month and U.S. Rep. Ted Budd easily scored a victory in North Carolina on Tuesday.

Oz’s campaign manager declined to comment Friday evening. McCormick’s campaign said it has no plans to decline a recount.

As of yet, neither campaign has gone to court, and both candidates have expressed confidence in victory.

 
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What to Expect From Biden’s Trip to Asia

US President Joe Biden is traveling to South Korea and Japan on Thursday, after hosting Southeast Asian leaders at the White House last week. The administration’s spotlight on Asia is a clear signal that the Indo-Pacific region remains its priority, even as it focuses on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara is traveling with the president and has this report.
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What to Expect From Biden’s Trip to Asia

U.S. President Joe Biden travels Thursday to South Korea and Japan — his first trip to Asia since taking office — following his summit with Southeast Asian leaders at the White House last week.

In Seoul, Biden will meet newly inaugurated South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, against the backdrop of North Korea’s ballistic missile tests and coronavirus outbreak.

In Tokyo, Biden will participate in the Quad partnership summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and either Prime Minister Scott Morrison or his contender Anthony Albanese — depending on who wins Saturday’s Australian election. It will be the Quad’s fourth meeting and second in-person session since the alliance was revived in 2017 to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.

The Biden administration’s spotlight on the Indo-Pacific is a clear signal that the region remains its priority and China its greatest strategic challenge, even as it responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan characterized the concurrent trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific coalition-building as an “integration” and “symbiosis” in strategy.

“President Biden’s unique capacity to actually stitch those two together is, I think, going to be a hallmark of his foreign policy,” Sullivan told reporters Thursday.

Some key issues to watch:

China

The trip will convey an “affirmative vision of what the world can look like if democracies and open societies of the world stand together to shape the rules of the road, to define the security architecture of the region, to reinforce strong, powerful, historic alliances,” Sullivan said. “We think it will be heard in Beijing.”

Observers say Biden will reaffirm the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and use the Ukraine crisis to signal that unilaterally changing the status quo by force is as unacceptable in Asia as it is in Europe.

“The administration wants to make it very clear that there is strong support for Taiwan throughout the region, and that there is tremendous capability there as there has proven to be capability in the trans-Atlantic alliance vis-à-vis Ukraine,” Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, told VOA.

The Quad will also consult on tensions in the South China Sea and the recent security agreement between Beijing and the Solomon Islands that has triggered fears of a Chinese military base in the strategically important waters.

Canberra, a close neighbor, is very concerned, said Susannah Patton, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute. “It has been fundamental to Australia’s view of its own security that hostile powers should not be able to project force against Australia from the Pacific,” she told VOA.

Overall, Beijing’s modernization of its armed forces is pushing Quad countries to catch up, Charles Edel, Australia chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA. China’s increased military spending in the past decade has led regional countries such as Singapore, Japan, Australia and Taiwan to purchase new weapons technology, mainly from the U.S.

Coalition against Russia

While the region’s coalition is less robust than Europe’s, Biden will encourage further resolve among partners to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Tokyo, the strongest U.S. ally in the region, has placed financial sanctions and export controls on Moscow, announced a phase-out of Russian energy, and offered humanitarian assistance and nonlethal military aid to Ukraine. It also recently signed a defense cooperation pact with Britain that would allow the two G-7 countries to quickly deploy their armed forces for training and joint exercises.

South Korea’s government, under former President Moon Jae-in, provided humanitarian assistance and supported international sanctions against Russia, but unlike Japan and Australia, did not impose sanctions. Newly elected President Yoon campaigned on strengthening the alliance with the U.S., which may provide an opening for Biden to secure greater support on the Ukraine issue.

In addition to sanctions, Morrison’s government has provided military and humanitarian assistance to Kyiv. Patton noted that either Morrison or Albanese, if elected, would remain faithful to Australia’s alliance with Washington and would not likely change policy on Ukraine.

India remains the region’s weakest link concerning Russia. Recent statements by officials, however, signaled the Biden administration’s understanding that it cannot push too hard and jeopardize India’s critical role in the rivalry against China and wider co-operation in the Indo-Pacific, said Aparna Pande, director of Hudson Institute’s Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia.

Pande told VOA that India recently halted negotiations to acquire 10 Kamov Ka-31 helicopters following uncertainties in Russian arms supplies, which may create an opening for Quad countries to persuade New Delhi to take a firmer stance on Ukraine.

Indo-Pacific Economic Framework

In Tokyo, Biden is scheduled to launch the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the centerpiece of his administration’s economic policy in the region. The IPEF will be Washington’s first attempt to create a large-scale multilateral, Asia-focused economic strategy since the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the regional free trade agreement the Obama administration launched in 2016 and that former President Trump withdrew from in 2017.

There are scant details about the framework, other than that it would include standards to ease trade under various “modules” such as fair and resilient trade; supply chain resilience; infrastructure, clean energy and decarbonization; and tax and anti-corruption.

One thing is clear, the IPEF does not include the free-trade components that regional countries desire, such as tariff cuts and other market-access tools Washington has used to encourage partners to accept policies that may not benefit their short-term economic interests.

With Trump-era protectionist sentiments still running high, the administration and Democrats in Congress appear unenthusiastic about the political cost of opening American market access. Observers say this is the main reason the U.S. lacks a robust economic and trade strategy to counter China’s increasing influence in the region.

To attract nations beyond those already aligned with American standards and rules on trade, the U.S. is adopting a pick-and-choose approach for IPEF, giving countries the flexibility of signing only on the modules they are interested in. South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are among those who have signaled interest.

North Korea

Biden is not scheduled to visit the Korean Demilitarized Zone, but denuclearization of the peninsula and North Korea’s COVID-19 crisis are set to be high on the agenda.

Pyongyang fired three short-range ballistic missiles last Thursday, the latest in a series of weapons tests this year. Officials are bracing for another one.

“We are preparing for all contingencies, including the possibility that such a provocation would occur while we are in Korea or in Japan,” Sullivan said, adding that the U.S. will adjust its military posture to ensure it is providing “defense and deterrence” to allies.

Last week’s missile test coincided with Pyongyang’s confirmation of its first case of COVID-19. North Korea is one of the very few countries not inoculating its population against the coronavirus — it has repeatedly turned down vaccine donations from the United Nations’ COVAX program.

North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong Un has ordered nationwide lockdowns and a bolstering of the country’s defense posture. Lockdowns could be disastrous to the country, which suffers from drought and food shortages. Observers say, however, that the COVID-19 crisis could provide an opening to boost engagement with Pyongyang.

Pandemic response

In their March 2021 virtual meeting, Quad leaders pledged to supply 1 billion COVID-19 shots by the end of 2022 “to strengthen and assist countries in the Indo-Pacific.”

The initiative is currently in limbo as the manufacturer, India’s Biological E Ltd., has yet to receive the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) it needs to distribute the doses.

With various vaccine manufacturers producing more than 1 billion doses of vaccines per month, observers say the problem lies in global distribution capacity rather than production targets. The Quad is expected to discuss how to best address the issue moving forward, as part of its vaccine diplomacy in the region.

Other issues of regional concern are also expected to be addressed, such as combating climate change, addressing rising energy prices and increasing supply chain resilience in various sectors including semiconductors.

Biden is expected to visit a Samsung Electronics chip manufacturing complex in South Korea. Last year, Samsung announced it is building a chip plant in the U.S. state of Texas, a win for the administration as it seeks to increase domestic chip production to compete with China and mitigate supply chain disruptions.
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Looming Midterm Elections Put US Voting Rights in Spotlight

Millions of U.S. voters are casting ballots in state primary races to determine which candidates face off in November’s midterm elections. The stakes are high for Democrats and Republicans, as the outcome will determine which political party controls both houses of Congress next year. The contest will be a test of new voting laws in many states that restrict access to the ballot in the name of election security.

With barely six months until the 2022 midterms, fierce debate has emerged over voting rights and voting integrity, topics that have long stirred passions in America. In broad terms, Democrats favor making it easier and more convenient to vote, while Republican lawmakers in some states have passed laws to restrict voting access and heighten scrutiny of those who cast ballots.

“I think our democracy is under threat by these new laws,” former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a Democrat, said at a Washington, D.C., event to unveil his new book that chronicles the country’s fight for voting rights.

“Many citizens have only had unfettered access to the ballot since the 1960s. Now, there are efforts to make it harder to vote, not easier,” Holder told VOA earlier this month.

This year, at least 27 Republican-led states have introduced or enacted a total of 250 pieces of voting legislation, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The initiatives range from limiting early or absentee balloting to implementing stricter voter identification requirements. The flurry of activity comes after 19 state legislatures in 2021 approved 34 restrictive voting laws.

Republicans maintain the measures are designed to prevent voter fraud and ensure election integrity. Democrats and voting rights advocates counter that the new laws will disproportionately impact the ability of African Americans and other minority groups to vote.

The laws add to Democrats’ apprehensions ahead of the midterms. Not only are key minority constituencies that tend to vote Democratic registering frustration and low levels of voter enthusiasm in current polls, those who do intend to vote in November may find it more difficult to do so in many states.

“I think many African Americans are concerned about more voting restrictions,” said Jatia Wrighten, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. “Establishing methods to increase voting participation is one of the major ways in which we see change come about in Black communities.”

Florida example

A U.S. federal appeals court recently cleared the way for a restrictive voting law in Florida to go into effect. The court said earlier this month that a lower court order blocking parts of the law had been issued too close to the state’s primary elections in August.

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker, who blocked the voting law last March, said Florida state legislators had deliberately written provisions to suppress turnout by Black voters. The new measures included tighter rules on mailed ballots, paring back the number of ballot dropoff boxes, limiting voter registration drives and barring people from giving food or other assistance to those waiting in line to vote.

But while Walker found that the right to vote is “under siege” in Florida, the appeals court argued for a “presumption of legislative good faith” among Florida’s elected state representatives who crafted the bill.

Reaction outside the courts has been swift.

“Let’s be clear, this law in Florida undoes the progress that voting rights groups have made and targets the very tools minority communities like ours use to increase voter turnout,” Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of the Florida-based voting rights group Equal Ground, said in a statement.

Not so, according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate.

“I don’t think there is any other place in the country where you should have more confidence that your vote counts than in the state of Florida,” he said during a recent news conference.

DeSantis has made voting legislation a key priority. He recently pushed the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to adopt a new law creating an Office of Election Crimes and Security. Its staff of 15 people would conduct preliminary investigations of suspected election fraud and investigate voting-related complaints.

“We just want to make sure whatever laws are on the books that those laws are enforced,” DeSantis said.

The new measure is the second major overhaul of Florida’s election laws since the November 2020 election in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump, and Democrats narrowly won control of both houses of Congress.

Florida and other Republican-led states have acted amid persistent false claims by Trump and his supporters that his election defeat was the result of widespread election fraud. Those claims were rejected by multiple courts and state election authorities. Extensive research has found that voter fraud in the U.S. is exceedingly rare and generally detected. An Associated Press investigation found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots cast in the six states where Trump and his allies disputed his loss to Biden.

Voting protections

Voting rights advocates have called on the Justice Department to ensure free and fair elections nationwide. However, the department has limited powers following a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Shelby County v. Holder) that dismantled part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The provisions the high court nixed required states with a history of voting discrimination to get pre-approval from the Justice Department before changes are made to state election laws.

The case centered around an Alabama county that sued Holder to stop the Justice Department from enforcing key sections of the Voting Rights Act.

“Immediately after the Supreme Court decision, you saw states around the country putting in place voter suppression measures that would have been prohibited had part of the (Voting Rights) Act stayed intact,” said Holder. “The decision had a negative impact on our democracy.”

Efforts to win congressional approval for nationwide voting rights protections stalled in Congress last year. The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives but was ultimately shelved in the politically divided Senate

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named for the late Georgia Democratic representative and civil rights leader, would restore Justice Department review of changes in election laws in states with a history of discrimination. Another measure called The Freedom to Vote Act set nationwide standards for how elections are conducted and expands voting access.

Historically, it has been left up to individual states to determine how to conduct elections. Republican lawmakers oppose attempts to federalize voting in America with uniform rules set in Washington.

Earlier this year, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who played a critical role in blocking the voting legislation, took issue with any suggestion that state legislatures were seeking to disenfranchise Black voters.

“The concern is misplaced because if you look at the statistics, Black people vote at similar rates to all American voters,” McConnell said.

Despite an increasingly challenging legal landscape, voting rights groups say they will work even harder to get Americans to turn out to vote — and to overcome any obstacles they may face to cast a ballot.
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