China Complies With N. Korea Sanctions

U.S. Diplomats Begin New Round Of Diplomacy In Asia To Address Divisions Over Sanctions

(AP)  Trading companies in Dandong, at the western end of the border, and in Tumen, near the eastern end, said the sanctions were not affecting shipments.

"Today, we just sent a batch of agricultural tools to North Korea by truck," said Huang Kelin, manager of Wanshida Trading Co., a Dandong-based firm that has an office in Pyongyang.

At the Nanping crossing, in an eastern valley surrounded by mountains, inspectors were going through a standard regimen, looking at both cargo and passengers, a police officer said. "The inspections are routine and conducted by quarantine officials," said the officer, Li Canhao.

Chinese goods reach the North by road and rail, while oil is delivered mainly via pipeline. It wasn't immediately clear what China was doing to inspect rail shipments. A lone locomotive headed into North Korea on Monday afternoon, apparently to pull a cargo train back to China. The North also has a rail link to Russia in the east, though it wasn't clear how that was being policed.

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, said his country would implement the Security Council resolution and inspect cargo from North Korea for illegal weapons and missiles, but he indicated Chinese inspectors would not board ships. He noted that inspections are not mandatory under the resolution, intended to punish the North for its Oct. 9 nuclear test.

"This is a resolution we have to implement," Wang told reporters at the United Nations. "The question was raised whether China will do inspections. Inspections yes, but inspection is different then interdiction and interception. I think different countries will do it different ways."

Wang's remarks represented a change from those he made Saturday after joining the council in voting to impose tough sanctions on North Korea for its Oct. 9 nuclear test. He initially objected to China's conducting inspections because of concerns that cargo checks would raise tensions with the North rather than persuade Pyongyang to return to six-party talks on its nuclear program.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, when asked about interdicting ships, said Monday that "one has to be very careful about it."

"When you go into inspection and things like that, cargo, one has to be very careful to avoid any kind of semblance of provocation," Churkin said.

North Korea's total foreign trade was less than $4 billion last year, though it is growing quickly, according to Chinese and South Korean figures. China accounted for a major portion of that trade, with $1.7 billion in exports and $500 million in imports, according to the Commerce Ministry in Beijing. China also provides up to 90 percent of the North's oil.

There are also questions about how strictly South Korea will enforce the U.N. resolution. The South has significant trade relations with North Korea and its citizens worry about a conventional attack by their unpredictable neighbor.

North Korea's No. 2 ranking leader, Kim Yong Nam, defiantly said the regime would strengthen its military and "achieve a final victory in the historic standoff with the U.S."

The North found a sympathetic ear in Iran, which has also been condemned for its nuclear program. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday rejected the American-initiated measures and accused the United States of using the U.N. Security Council as a "weapon to impose its hegemony."

In Washington, Rice warned that U.N. sanctions on North Korea should also be seen by Iran as a strong signal to abandon its nuclear ambitions or face a rebuke from a united international community.

"The Iranian government is watching," she said. "It can now see that the international community will respond" to efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

[alphaa10-2009]

Rice uttered the most preposterous statement of her diplomatic year-- that is, after her comment that halting the Israeli invasion would not work with the root causes of that conflict. Rice said North Korean sanctions meant Ahmadinejad had better watch out with his nuclear effrontery. We couldn't imagine a more delicate ballet of international concern for ruffled North Korean feelings. If the PRC does follow through with its end of sanctions, it could not be more circumspect. China does not fear the North Koreans, but does fear the human disaster that would follow some pushing and shoving between the two countries at the border.

[peterbaldwin-2009]

Condi "hair on fire" Rice is looking foolish trying to turn lemons into lemonade with White House spin about how the deep divisions within the UN Security Council over sanctions have actually brought unprecedented unity (in the World According to Bush) and that Chinese border inspections that are routine and have been going on for years is evidence that China is coming around to the US position. ontop of it, strains between China and its ally are becoming evident because of a fence being built that was started in 2003.

A few years ago, White House operatives bragged about how the White House "created [its own] reality", deriding those not so omnipotent members of the so-called "reality-based community". Now, with the embarassed mainstream media opting out of the Bush fantasyland, they just look like nincompoops.

Kim Jong's number one cheerleader, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is putting in his two cents, agreeing with the neocons that the UN is a sad joke, an American tool to promote US hegemeny.