China Stabs Obama (and America) in the Back on North Korea

I’ve been skeptical of reports, most of them directly from the ChiCom propaganda mill, that China was cooperating with U.N. sanctions against North Korea. So after a brief flurry of displays of cooperation, here is what the statistical record tells us:

North Korea’s trade with China declined slightly during the first half of this year, likely due to falling prices of crude oil, a South Korean agency and officials said Wednesday.

Trade volume during the January-June period totaled US$1.1 billion, down 3.7 percent from a year earlier and the first decline since 1999, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said in an emailed release that cited official Chinese data. The drop was in striking contrast with a 41 percent increase during the same period last year and a 16 percent gain in 2007. [Yonhap]

Got that? China halted the rate of growth in its support for North Korea, growth that was presumably designed to make up for what South Korea reduced since Roh Moo Hyun’s extinction. But overall, trade only declined by low single digits, most of that the result of North Korea actually getting a better deal on Chinese fuel. Most contemptible of all was China’s increased supply of food directly to the North Korean regime and army, which undercuts any multilateral pressure on North Korea to allow monitored food aid distributed on the basis of need, rather than loyalty.

China isn’t going to help us defang North Korea, and any president who believes they will is delusional. China wants North Korea to have nukes and helped North Korea get them. The only way to stop China from propping up Kim Jong Il is to begin methodically sanctioning Chinese entities that do business in or with North Korea, using a tool such as Executive Order 13,382. Then, other Chinese companies with substantial investments in the United States will have to choose between doing business with us, and doing business with Kim Jong Il. Most will make the choice themselves without having to be prodded.