China (and others) on North Korea

[Randy W]

 

North Korea stages big artillery drill as U.S. submarine docks in South

People's Daily, China

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[Randy W]

North Korean state media warn China not to test Pyongyang’s patience further http://s.scmp.com/northkorea

(SCMP)

 

North Korea denounces ally China, saying it should be grateful for its ‘protection’

Criticism from Beijing’s former close ally come as Pyongyang is under intense pressure to rein in its nuclear weapons programme

 

Washington, meanwhile, is pushing Beijing to put more pressure on Pyongyang.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week warned the UN Security Council of “catastrophic consequences” if the international community, most notably China, failed to pressure the North into abandoning its weapons programme.

 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi brushed aside Tillerson’s comments, saying that “the key to solving the nuclear issue on the peninsula does not lie in the hands of the Chinese side”.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

more reading material for those who are interested - from the SCMP

 

HOW MACAU BECAME NORTH KOREA’S WINDOW TO THE WORLD... AND ITS NEXUS FOR WEAPONS AND DRUGS TRAFFICKING

The assassination of Kim Jong-nam put a spotlight on the Chinese city he lived in – but Pyongyang’s links to the former Portuguese colony stretch much further back, into a murky and sordid past

 

Sitting in this sophisticated restaurant on Taipa island, few would guess the former Portuguese enclave was an important gateway for North Korea to the world. Yet, allegedly, it was a nexus of money-laundering and weapons and drug trafficking for Pyongyang. And for almost two decades, it was also home to the eldest son and two grandchildren of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

. . .

From the North Korean point of view, Macau had several advantages over Hong Kong, including that Chinese authorities had always had more influence over the discreet and much smaller colony.

A security source said Macau was a “much better place to plan certain activities than Hong Kong”.

Hong Kong-based political commentator Sonny Lo Shiu-hing said “the British were part of the American alliance in dealing with communism, so of course Hong Kong under British rule did not provide that favourable environment to North Korean officials”.

“But Macau was different,” he said. “Portugal remained neutral during the second world war and Macau, under colonial rule, was traditionally a place for espionage. Macau had all sorts of international banks and a favourable environment to train North Korean agents.”

. . .

Even so, a flight between Pyongyang and Bangkok, with a stopover in Macau, was eventually launched in September 1996. The frequency of the air connection was irregular, varying between weekly and monthly trips.

“There were basically no passengers. In the return to Pyongyang, they would put cargo: cigars, whisky, brandy and [basic hygiene products],” a source said.

Such flights were apparently not used only to feed the luxury tastes of the North Korean elite. Sources said North Korea also used them to run drug-trafficking and gun-smuggling rackets through the Portuguese enclave.

“Apparently the North Korean flights on the way to Thailand were used for drug-trafficking, like heroin and amphetamines. Everything served for the regime to obtain cash,” said a source.

 

 

[Allon]

Good article, Randy. I am not surprised though. I think Macau being a center of anything illegal in that part, and even larger circles, is not surprising. The NK connection stretches on a line to Iran (and Cuba) who has sought their help in developing nuclear weapons. CNN had a special on it a while back, and it can pretty scary. Boats have been intercepted along that route containing equipment specifically for nuclear weapons. This was before the embargo with Iran was lifted.

 

Whenever the subject of Macao comes up in the Tai Tai circuit here, there is this long silence afterwards. Chilly.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/north-korean-ship-seized-in-panama-canal-carried-suspected-missile-system-components/2013/07/16/0234ad22-ee4f-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_story.html?utm_term=.ee0a68213ea0

[Randy W]

in the WSJ - sounds, unsurprisingly, like business as always with North Korea

 

Trump Says China Failed to Help U.S. With North Korea Problems

The president hints at a new policy direction in the region

 

President Donald Trump, under pressure to respond to the death of an American student after his detention by North Korea, said Tuesday that China has been unable to crack down on North Korea, pointing to a new direction for U.S. policies.

“While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out,” Mr. Trump said in a Twitter message. “At least I know China tried.”

. . .

 

The Trump administration also could attempt diplomacy with North Korea, as Mr. Trump previously has suggested, although Mr. Spicer played down prospects Tuesday. “Clearly, we’re moving further away, not closer to, those conditions being intact,” he said.

American diplomats had been holding secret talks in Pyongyang and European cities with North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator for more than a year, hoping to free U.S. prisoners and possibly establish a diplomatic channel to constrain North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Officials with the Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

 

[Randy W]

The view from China in the SCMP. What I figure is that there are a LOT of North Koreans who will suffer before the effects will ever be felt by the Kim family

 

SANCTIONS ARE FINE, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHINESE WHO DEPEND ON TRADE WITH NORTH KOREA?

 

With Beijing under growing international pressure to impose tougher sanctions on Pyongyang, Chinese traders on the border fear for their future

 

 

Su Nan, a trader along the China-North Korea border, used to be a busy man. He used to wake early in the morning, fill his schedule with endless phone calls, and in a good year close deals worth millions of US dollars. But now, all of that has gone.

 

“We have no revenue so far this year,” Su told This Week in Asia. “In fact, we have been struggling since 2016, with fewer and fewer orders coming.”

. . .

But with Beijing trying to thwart Pyongyang’s accelerating nuclear and ballistic-missile programmes, Chinese traders like Su have begun to feel the pinch, leaving many wondering what the future holds.

For cross-border businesses, recent high-level security talks between China and the US in Washington – alongside North Korea’s test-firing last week of an intercontinental ballistic missile – have fuelled even more anxieties.

 

[Greg.D.]

"Nearly 80,000 North Korean working overseas send up to US$2.3 billion back home annually, according to a report by the North Korean Strategy Centre, a defector group. The report said more than half of them work in China and Russia."

 

After expenses they're clearing on average $28,750!!! Not bad.

 

Otherwise a fair article.

[danb]

$28,750 seems like a lot of money. Unless these workers are skilled technical workers or if they do some type of real dangerous work. Isn't that salary high even for a Chinese person? The US is trying to get China to pursue the N. Koreans to stop their nuclear program. I question why the Chinese would be willing to do that. What is in it for them? I hope the Chinese do help but I am not sure how willing they are. Danb

[Allon]

One of the issues with China being a "regent" either before or after a war is the issue of feeding NK. Some NK soldiers have actually crossed the northern river into China and robbed banks, residents, and stores in order to obtain food to take back. I feel it is the main reason why our defense industry and military are for more sanctions. They know China will have to do something with all the refugees, and of course, current cross border operations.

 

If NK soldiers are starving think of what civilians are going through.

 

China is not interested in feeding them but still has massed troops along that border for protection of their citizens, and in case of an intervention by the US.

 

I think any plan to intervene in Korea militarily has to incorporate nukes, as a terror measure. It will keep the Chinese away, and scare the hell out of NK soldiers. That said, I hope it never happens.

 

I do hope there are plans to feed and care for NK in that event, nuclear or not. The whole world is watching.

 

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2017/03/02/0200000000AEN20170302008500315.html

[Randy W]

in the Global Times

 

Chinese expert tells US to ‘calm down’ on North Korea

The US should calm down instead of irritating North Korea at this critical period as the North has frequently tested missiles in recent days with more mature technology, he added.

The US test, conducted over the Pacific Ocean, comes amid heightened tensions with North Korea, which on Saturday said it had conducted its own successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that proved it has the capacity to strike the US mainland.

The US also flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday, said Reuters.

. . .

Lü said that it is unreasonable for the US to blame China as China and North Korea are two sovereign states and no one has any power to "solve" the other's problem.

Meanwhile, he added that China has made sufficient efforts to solve the problem, and it has strictly implemented resolutions of the UN Security Council.

China has banned imports of coal, iron ore, gold, rare earths, and several other raw minerals from North Korea, and has banned the sale of jet fuel to North Korea as well.

However, the US always wants China to take tougher action against North Korea, which means cut all imports, Lü said.

He said it is unreasonable and impossible because China has a humanitarian obligation to provide North Korean people with a livelihood.

 

No word, though, as to how he sees the game playing out.

[amberjack1234]

Easy enough for him to tell us to calm down. Fatty Kim is not targeting him at least yet. China should be concerned fatty Kim could turn on them and point a couple of nukes Beijing's way. I'm with Eric in that I would go the nuke route as long as they were of very low yield level. I would hate to see every man woman and child in North Korea become crispy critters or totally vaporized which just two of our subs could provide or several B1's.

 

Edit to add. I expect that if it does ever come to this we will have to fight Iran too. Russians?????

Edited July 31, 2017 by amberjack1234 (see edit history)

[Greg.D.]

S Korea has calmly changed its mind about calm discussion with the North as a replacement for a strong defense:

 

After North Korea Test, South Korea Pushes to Build Up Its Own Missiles

 

The South’s newly elected president, Moon Jae-in, called for the relaxation of limits on its missile arsenal hours after the North launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, 2,200 miles into space, which landed its warhead just off the coast of Hokkaido, the northernmost Japanese island. Experts quickly calculated that the demonstrated range of that test shot, if flattened out over the Pacific, could easily reach Los Angeles and perhaps as far as Chicago and New York, though its accuracy is in doubt.

The new missiles that South Korea wants, in addition to being able to strike deep into the North, could be a way of pressuring China to restrain Pyongyang because the missiles would probably be able to hit Chinese territory as well.

Mr. Moon’s top national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, called his White House counterpart, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, early on Saturday Seoul time to propose that the allies immediately start negotiations to permit South Korea to build up its missile capabilities. General McMaster agreed to the proposal, which would probably involve increasing the payload on South Korea’s ballistic missiles, according to officials in both countries.

[amberjack1234]

Whether they are accurate or not doesn't matter. If one was aimed at Washington DC but hit New York, Philadelphia instead the result would be the same.

[Allon]

It's a sticky wicket.

 

South Korea gets extended range missiles (they probably have them waiting in Japan) and China puts up a fit since they may reach China. But it is leverage against the DPRK, and China will then have to do something.

 

I would like to see what missiles they intend to place. DPRK has yet to have a demonstrated miniature bomb capable of being placed in a warhead. It has claimed it has done that but skeptics in Intel say no. That and the capability to produce uranium and plutonium (the first bombs are thought to be plutonium) weapons is key to their development of a nuclear program.

 

January 2017

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11813699

 

A little dated but still relevant....

[Randy W]

An interesting article on North Korean slave labor in China from the SCMP

 

Gaps in records cloak China’s North Korean ‘slave labourers’ in mystery

Beijing has almost no public record of the North Korean workers’ presence and activities in China, even as their use sparks UN and US criticism

 

 

 

 

“These are low-paying, highly intensive high-turnover rate jobs among the Chinese. But the turnover rate for North Korean labourers is zero,” Go said. “Therefore, it’s more convenient to hire North Koreans over Chinese workers. North Korean labourers generate between US$100 and US$200 million in annual revenue for leader Kim Jong-un’s regime, the researcher said.

 

. . .

 

Pyongyang cooperates with North Korean businessmen who have pre-existing relationships with business people in China and then works out an agreement for sending North Korean workers there. In China, the workers are controlled and constantly watched by North Korean security agents.

“North Korea does not like to send individual workers. They want to send workers in a bigger group,” Go said. “I suspect it’s more economically efficient to send more workers per security worker.” For instance, they may send a 50-person construction crew to Russia, he said.

 

. . .

 

In response to the UN sanctions, Go said, one scenario that could play out is that China could send sub-contract manufacturing work to state-owned factories in North Korea. “It’s already happening. That’s one way to evade the sanctions and [sending work to North Korean factories] is not banned,” he said.

 

. . .

 

There are restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai and some Chinese border cities that are staffed with North Korean waitresses, but information about their operation and the lives of these workers are sketchy.

In addition to labourers, China also has North Koreans studying in its scientific research institutes, raising concerns they could be learning sensitive military technology.

. . .

“It’s a damning commentary on the plight of DPRK citizens that even when 70 to 80 per cent of their foreign wages are skimmed off for the military whims of Kim Jong-un, the paltry remains are better than wages available to them inside the secret state.”