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July 20, 2009

Sanctions Upates

The big headline this week is the U.N.’s agreement on a list of entities to be sanctioned under UNSCR 1718 and 1874 (see links on my sidebar for the texts).  Frankly, I think that’s a story that’s getting a great deal more attention than it merits.  The sanctioned entities have largely been sanctioned under Executive Order 13,382 for years.  I doubt that the U.N. imprimatur is going to fend off many of North Korea’s WMD clients that the Treasury Department’s...

Categories "United" Nations/Axis of Evil/China/Missiles/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD
July 14, 2009

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...

Categories China/Uncategorized
July 7, 2009

North Korea’s Great Leap Backward

It’s not just on this blog where the ill-informed and the self-deluded continue to defy years of bitter experience and advocate “engagement” with the North Korean regime as a way to encourage economic reform. You can still hear academics in Washington cite the potential for economic reform in North Korea as a reason not to impose sanctions after North Korea’s nuke and missile tests. Some day, we must make a point of tabulating the amount of money spent on this...

Categories China & Korea/Famine & Food Aid/NK Economics
July 2, 2009

This Means World War III for Sure

Contrary to previous reports suggesting that he was out of the running, Bill Stanton has been named head of the American Institute on Taiwan, making him the de-facto U.S. Ambassador to Taiwan.  The post does not require confirmation by the Senate.  Recall that Stanton (no relation) had called Laura Ling and Euna Lee “stupid” and a distraction from “bigger issues” while leading a delegation of young congressional staffers through the U.S. Embassy in Seoul in March. Later, North Korea claimed...

Categories China/Ling/Lee Incident/Taiwan
July 1, 2009

How China Helps North Korea Proliferate

Who still thinks the Chinese want to help us make North Korea play nicely? But tighter controls by the international community of weapons of mass destruction and restraints on the North’s arms industry meant Pyongyang had to look for more devious ways. For instance, the North took a roundabout land route via China and Russia, which is harder to trace, or used transport planes at night. It also exported weapons by building assembly factories in importing countries. To circumvent an...

Categories China/Proliferation/Uncategorized
June 29, 2009

WaPo on China’s Trade with North Korea, and Its Rulers’ Darkest Fears

China, which the unmitigated chutzpah we’ve come to expect of it, reassures us that it is “deeply committed” to the enforcement of UNSCR 1874.  Today, Blaine Harden of the Washington Post reports the facts that shatter that mendacious claim.  In a new report, he provides fresh evidence of China’s economic colonization of North Korea, which fits neatly with its agenda of undermining U.N. sanctions against the North.  It’s a must-read, but here’s a money quote: As U.N. sanctions mount and...

Categories China/NK Economics/NK Military/Proliferation/WMD
June 28, 2009

In the case of a DPRK regime collapse, what power would South Korea have?

Had an interesting conversation this weekend with a North Korea watcher where for the first time, the idea of reunification seems realistic and within reach, yet at the same time, also at risk. It all has to do with the current health of Kim Jong Il who appears to be hanging on by a thread, the relatively short grooming period of his son to succeed him, and of course, China and the U.S. But not South Korea interestingly…

Categories China/North Korea/Regime Change
June 26, 2009

U.S. Won’t Board Suspected N. Korean Arms Ship

The North Korean ship Kang Nam I may be carrying missiles to Burma, and then again, it may be headed for a stopover in Burma as it transits to points west.  And then again, it may merely be carrying “small” arms and bullets for shooting dissidents and uppity monks (for which their next of kin will be duly billed).  The official Burmese version is that they aren’t expecting the Kang Nam I in any of their ports. For some reason,...

Categories "United" Nations/China/Proliferation
June 26, 2009

Nothing Says “Democratic Peoples’ Republic” Like a New S-Class

A recent report claims that even as North Korea was preparing missile and nuclear tests, China helped North Korea flout a U.N. Security Council Resolution for which it voted and which it has promised to implement in good faith.  UNSCR 1718, in effect since October 2006, bans the export of luxury goods to North Korea.  It has since been reinforced by UNSCR 1874: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il doled out foreign-made cars to senior intelligence officials to ensure their...

Categories "United" Nations/China & Korea/Kremlinology
June 20, 2009

Sanctions Updates

The United Nations is getting to work on a list of North Korean entities to be sanctioned under UNSCR 1874, as Pentagon officials head to China to press their hosts on implementation and compliance. Off the Chinese coast, the U.S.S. John S. McCain continues to shadow the Kang Nam I and prepares to invoke the awesome mandate of the Security Council’s “pretty please” resolution.  Asked the obvious question, the State Department gives a quintessential State Department answer: “We would hope...

Categories "United" Nations/China/Proliferation/Sanctions
June 10, 2009

S. Korea and Japan Join Sanctions Effort Against North Korea

Kyodo News and Yonhap are reporting that we’re close to announcing a deal on sanctions at the U.N. Security Council.  I’m hopeful that the length of the negotiation means that we’ve insisted on something reasonably tough on paper; less so that the Chinese and the Russians will cooperate in practice.  I tend to view claims that China has lost patience with North Korea at last as so much Chinese disinformation, meant to mask China’s premeditated enabling of North Korea’s misdeeds...

Categories "United" Nations/China/Money Laundering/Sanctions
June 5, 2009

Obama Gears Up for “Plan B;” John Kerry Blocks Terror Re-Listing

I really don’t know what to make of this.  A young, inexperienced president, one whom the North Koreans arguably endorsed, comes into office showing every sign of being easier meat than Lance Bass in Riker’s Island.  The North Koreans, true to Joe Biden’s prophetic gaffe, and with their exquisite sensitivity to American weakness, don’t even let the man get inaugurated before they begin the noisy repudiation of every agreed framework, U.N. resolution, and armistice they can stuff into a shredder....

Categories "United" Nations/China/Counterfeiting/Money Laundering/NK Crime/NK Economics/Proliferation/Sanctions/U.S. Politics
June 2, 2009

Updated: China Steps It Up

Updated: Got my hopes up too soon, I see. China says its relations with North Korea remain normal after last week’s nuclear test. Original: Finally, we are hearing news of China taking an initiative in North Korea’s nuclear issue. This surely is a significant development (from yesterday’s headlines): China suspended government exchanges with North Korea after Kim Jong-Il’s regime last week tested a nuclear device and fired short-range missiles, Yonhap News said. China has halted plans to send officials to...

Categories China
May 31, 2009

Why Are Laura Ling and Euna Lee Being Tried on June 4th?

Why else, silly? When a government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter, or to abolish it. Hey, something has to push that off page one. And people really think China will finally bring North Korea to heel this time? Fat chance. If the North Koreans are interested in making a big spectacle of their belligerence, it’s a very bad sign indeed for Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two young women who made...

Categories China/China & Korea
May 26, 2009

In ‘The New Ledger:’ Holding China Accountable

Here’s a quote: Afer the 2006 nuclear test, John Bolton pressured China into voting for U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, which seemed to impose tough sanctions on North Korea. A detailed study by the economist and North Korea expert Marcus Noland later revealed that China also undermined the very sanctions it voted for in Resolution 1718 with increased cross-border aid and trade. China also instructed its banks to free up the movement of North Korean assets. Most recently, China blocked...

Categories China/Proliferation/WMD