White House Is Being Pressed to Reverse Course and Join Land Mine Ban

White House Is Being Pressed to Reverse Course and Join Land Mine Ban
By MARK LANDLER


WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, under intense political pressure from Capitol Hill and elsewhere, is engaged in a vigorous debate over whether to reverse course and join an international treaty banning land mines, administration officials said this week.

In re-examining the issue, the administration is stepping back into the glare of a perennial cause that has captured the attention of world leaders, royalty and celebrities. It is also inviting another internal debate that pits the Pentagon against other parts of the administration.

The policy review, which officials expect to be completed this summer, could result in the United States pledging to abide by the treaty’s provisions even if it does not join it. That would be a striking disavowal of its announcement last fall that it would stick to the Bush administration’s refusal to join the agreement, known as the Ottawa Treaty.

It would also mollify critics, chiefly Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who called the earlier decision a “default of U.S. leadership and a detour from the clear path of history.” Mr. Leahy, who expressed his dismay to President Obama, said on Friday that he was glad the issue was getting “the kind of attention it should have been getting then.”


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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/world/americas/08mine.html?hpw

People will say they are for it but that the DMZ is too much of a concern and that we can't join without an exception for the DMZ.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/05/08/us-two-thirds-senate-back-landmine-ban

The letters addressed two issues raised over the years by those who were hesitant to join the treaty. One is whether landmines would have to be removed from the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The letters note that the antipersonnel mines there are the responsibility of South Korea, not the United States. If the United States joins the treaty, mines in the DMZ would not be affected. The United States would be able to maintain its military relationship with, and troop deployment in, South Korea, though it would not be able to assist South Korea with the use, production, stockpiling, or transfer of antipersonnel mines.

That picture doesn't match up to the threat posed by the North Korean army.

Fact of life. Once the regime in NK falls, then we'll be able to remove the mines.

Can pressure be put on the company or State?