China Agrees to Sanction North Korea
Not much time to comment on this as I’m running late, but it seems China has agreed to sanction the DPRK over its nuclear test conducted earlier this year.
From Bloomberg:
China agreed for the first time to punish senior North Korean government officials for defying United Nations resolutions barring nuclear and missile tests, China’s deputy ambassador said.
Ambassador Liu Zhenmin said his government would support imposing a travel ban and asset freeze on a “large percentage” of 15 North Korean officials proposed by the U.S. and other Western nations as targets for UN sanctions.
The officials have not been named.
The article goes on to quote Yang Moo Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, who said that despite this development, China won’t ever completely abandon North Korea, an assessment I agree with. As we have discussed here many times before, China won’t ever do anything as drastic as to promote a North Korea collapse but its latest decision does show some significance. It is the first time China has publicly agreed to sanction North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
I’ll believe that when I see it.
Notice how China says a “large percentage” (大部分 was the actual Chinese word used) of 15 North Korean officials. How are we to interpret that? 11 out of 15? The Chinese get to choose which officials can still sneak into China? How convenient!
It’s too bad the UN Security Council doesn’t increase the number of blacklisted North Korean officials to 52 names, then they could issue decks of playing cards as was done with “Iraq’s Most Wanted” by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Yonhap has one name from the black list:
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2009/07/14/46/0301000000AEN20090714004200315F.HTML
Among about a dozen North Korean officials likely to be blacklisted, according to a diplomatic source in Seoul, is Ju Kyu-chang, first vice director of the Ministry of Defense Industry, who is believed to have executed the North’s firing of a long-range rocket in April. Ju is known to be one of Kim’s confidants. The U.N Security Council will not target top-level officials like leader Kim Jong-il.”
I laughed when I read the title. As if China will ever punish its puppet state, DPRK.
China has cut off the oil supply and other such moves in the past, I seem to remember. But the actions have always been short-term slaps on the wrist to remind Pyongyang that it is very vulnerable.
The banking sanctions the US spearheaded would have to be put in this area as well…
Chosun Ilbo has added a couple more names to the blacklist:
Among officials likely to be blacklisted are Ju Kyu-chang, a member of the North Korean National Defense Commission and first vice director of the Ministry of Defense Industry, who is believed to supervise the North’s development of nuclear weapons and missiles; So Sang-kuk, physics faculty chair at Kim Il Sung University, who is the key figure in the nuclear development program; and Li Yong-ha, president of Yongbyon Physics University.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/07/15/2009071500425.html