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CHINA: Moves to Contain N. Korea Sanctions Crisis

Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Oct 20 2006 (IPS) - While United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is touring North-east Asia, rallying support for tough enforcement of United Nations sanctions on North Korea, China has mounted diplomatic efforts to forestall escalation of the crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Key to Beijing’s efforts is the mission of a senior diplomatic envoy carrying a personal message for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from Chinese President Hu Jintao.

“This is a very significant visit against the backdrop of major changes in the situation on the Korean peninsula,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing on Thursday. “We hope China’s diplomatic efforts will bear fruit.”

The Chinese special envoy, former foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan, is believed to be the first senior foreign diplomat to have met with the reclusive North Korean leader since Pyongyang ignored international warnings and conducted a nuclear test on Oct. 9.

Beijing was outraged by the test and by the North Korean government’s notification, in particular, a mere twenty minutes before the blast. The nuclear test occurred also in the middle of the four-day plenum of the ruling Chinese Communist party’s Central Committee, which was deliberating a blueprint for building a “harmonious society”.

China’s response to the nuclear provocation was unusually angry and strong-worded. It called the test “brazen and flagrant” and promised “a strong, forceful, appropriate” punitive response.

Beijing regards the North Korean nuclear test as a slap because China has shielded and propped up the regime of Kim Jong-il for years. China not only provides the neighbouring country with grain but also meets some 80 percent of its oil needs. It is also North Korea’s largest trade partner, accounting for 39 percent of the regime’s two-way trade in 2005.

While sending fuel and food Beijing has tried to persuade regime of Kim Jong-il to emulate China’s own model of economic reform – by opening up to the outside world and allowing room for market initiatives. But the regime has chosen instead to up the stakes in an escalating nuclear crisis.

Diplomatically, ever since Pyongyang expelled the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) inspectors in 2003 and quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), China has resisted efforts to censure North Korea at the United Nations Security Council where it holds a veto.

As North Korea’s strongest ally, China has been regarded internationally as capable of exerting a great deal of pressure on Pyongyang. Instead, Beijing has staked its reputation on initiating and hosting a series of six-party disarmament talks to defuse the crises, arguing that its friendly bilateral ties with the North would enable it to play a moderating role.

Yet, after Pyongyang ignored Beijing’s warnings to hold back on nuclear threats twice – first when firing ballistic missiles in July, and then by conducting an underground nuclear test on Oct. 9, it brought home forcefully the need for more resolute action.

“Kim Jong-il’s actions were seen as a reckless show of arrogance,” says current affairs commentator He Liangliang, about the Chinese leadership’s reaction to the nuclear explosion. “Many couldn’t believe how blatant he was in boasting with his nuclear prowess while the country is so dependent on outside help for everything.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said he had no details of the message delivered to Kim Jong-il from President Hu Jintao. However, speculation has mounted that China might now be prepared to take a tougher line towards its delinquent neighbour.

Beijing was quick to endorse Resolution 1718, adopted by the Security Council on Oct. 14, which condemns North Korea’s nuclear test and imposes mandatory non-military sanctions under chapter 7 of the UN charter.

But China’s ambiguous interpretation of the inspections of cargo going in and out of North Korea has raised questions about its commitment to enforcing the sanctions – as well as about the effectiveness of the measures in reigning in Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

Rice arrived in Beijing on Friday seeking assurances from China that it would cooperate into making the U.N. sanctions effective. Rice, who earlier visited Tokyo and Seoul as part of the U.S. drive to tighten pressure on North Korea, is scheduled to meet Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing and president Hu Jintao and then travel to Moscow.

“The US has no desire to do anything to escalate the situation,” Rice said during a press conference in Seoul, Thursday. ‘’We want to leave open the path for negotiation, we don’t want the crisis to escalate.”

The key sanctions authorised by the U.N. resolution include an embargo on exports to North Korea of heavy arms, material related to weapons of mass destruction (WMD)and luxury goods. U.N. member countries are required to freeze the financial assets of persons deemed to be connected to North Korea’s WMD and ballistic missiles programmes, and to prevent travel by such persons.

Of all endorsed sanctions, the cargo inspections are among the most controversial. The U.N. resolution allows countries to stop cargo shipments going to and from North Korean and inspect for WMD or related supplies.

China, in particular, worries that such cargo inspections could trigger naval clashes near its own borders and possibly even escalate into something bigger. Pyongyang’s response to the U.N. sanctions has been belligerent, calling them a “declaration of war”.

Although it voted for the sanctions, Beijing has since backtracked on the cargo inspections, saying it would not interdict North Korean ships at sea, as Washington has demanded.

“All sides need to consider how to implement Resolution 1718 in a balanced way and not devise ways to wilfully expand the sanctions,” Liu Jianchao said at the regular foreign ministry press briefing, Thursday. “Sanctions are the signal, not the goal.”