Chinese and Russian Cooperation With North Korea (Is the US being snookered?)

Newsmax ^ | Alexandr Nemets and Dr. Thomas Torda

[TapTheSource]

'Scarecrow': Chinese and Russian Cooperation With North Korea

Dr. Alexandr Nemets and Dr. Thomas Torda Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2001

Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, relations between Moscow and Pyongyang have been almost frozen as the "democratic new Russia" has demonstrated its disdain for and negligence toward the "last hard-line Communist regime."

In 1992-98 North Korean relations with China, its last formal ally, also stalled at a low level. Chinese aid to devastated and starving North Korea has been limited to donations of several hundred thousand tons of oil products and grain annually.

Prominent American sinologist Dr. Robert Scalapino (from the University of California at Berkeley) stated in 1992, soon after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Seoul: "China has, on the Korean peninsula, the unloved legal wife [North Korea] and the beloved concubine [South Korea]."

Indeed, as early as 1992, trade volume between China and South Korea was at least five times that between China and North Korea. In 1998, Chinese-South Korean trade surpassed $21 billion, while Sino-North Korean trade fell to a miserable $413 million. This latter figure included Chinese exports valued at $355 million, of which about $300 million was, in effect, economic assistance to Pyongyang.

In July 1994, just after the death of Supreme Leader Kim Il Song, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping sent a high-ranking "private envoy" (a member of Communist Party of China's Central Committee) to new Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il with a "secret letter" containing an urgent recommendation: "Begin reforms as soon as possible!" The letter was ignored and Sino-North Korean relations remained at a standstill for several more years.

However, even during this period North Korean companies purchased from the rich Chinese electronics and machinery markets some key assemblies and spare parts needed for development and production of conventional and strategic nuclear arms. North Korea's development and August 31, 1998, test-launch of the Taepodong strategic missile, with a range of at least 3,000 miles, probably would have been impossible without Chinese indirect assistance of this kind.

Upgrading of Sino-North Korean ties began in the second half of 1999 and dramatically escalated in 2000-2001. This process is characterized by exchanges of visits between the two sides' top leaders and significant expansion of Chinese assistance of all kind, including military-technological aid.

As a result, North Korea has acquired new capabilities in development and production of the most dangerous weapons – short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, chemical weapons and bioweapons. North Korea has exported some of these arms to Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, Syria and Libya – directly or indirectly supporting terrorist movements and groups.

Reportedly, Pyongyang has even managed to find some ways to provide missile technology to Saddam's regime.

It should be emphasized that Beijing precisely coordinates with Moscow its policy and assistance toward North Korea. Thus, upgraded Beijing-Pyongyang ties in effect coincide with upgraded Moscow-Pyongyang ties.

Following are some recent major events characterizing Chinese and Russian relations with North Korea:

In October 1999, chief of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff, Lt. Gen. Fu Quanyou, visited North Korea and vigorously promoted PLA ties with the Korean People's Army.

In February 2000 in Pyongyang, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov signed a "Russian-North Korean Treaty on Friendship, Good Neighbor Relations and Cooperation." In reality, this meant the spread of the emerging Sino-Russian alliance to North Korea. As a result, in the second half of 1999 and the first half of 2000, North Korea intensified its buildup of military capabilities, particularly the development of long-range missiles. North Korean deliveries of missile technology also expanded to include Iran, Syria, Libya and even Egypt.

In late May 2000, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il paid a secret visit to Beijing, thus pulling Pyongyang out of its decade-long self-isolation.

In June 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea and with Kim Jong-Il concluded a series of pacts on modernization of military and economic facilities built earlier in North Korea with Soviet aid. At the same time, the two countries agreed to coordinate their policies toward the U.S., Japan and South Korea. These agreements have been appreciated and hailed in Beijing.

In the latter half of 2000, Chinese and Russian assistance became substantial factors in the acceleration of North Korea's ballistic missile program as well as its programs to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

In April 2001 – during the tense crisis in Sino-U.S. relations over the collision of a Chinese fighter (lost in the sea) with a U.S. reconnaissance plane (forced to land on Hainan Island and subsequently occupied by the Chinese) – Pyongyang officially stated that it will launch attacks on the U.S. (or at least against U.S. forces in South Korea and Japan) if America and Japan go ahead with plans to construct an East Asian theater missile defense (TMD) system or irritate North Korea in any other way. One week later, in Moscow, North Korean Defense Minister Kim Il-Chon signed a series of Russian-arms-related agreements – first of all, on Russian deliveries of fighter aircraft to the Korean People's Army and Russian assistance in the modernization of North Korea's defense industry. Again, these agreements were hailed in Beijing.

In early July 2001, Chinese parliament Deputy Chairman Jiang Chunyun visited North Korea in what the media called "the first visit of a Chinese high-ranking official in many years" and further upgraded ties between the two nations in all areas. Some 10 days later, during Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to Moscow to sign the Sino-Russian Good Neighbor Treaty, the two sides once more coordinated their policies toward North Korea. From this point on, North Korea can be considered as a "smart tool" of China and Russia in Northeast Asia. Beijing uses the North Korean tool to put pressure on South Korea, Japan and the U.S. The epochal visit of Kim Jong-Il to Russia in August 2001 confirmed and enhanced this "scarecrow" role for the Pyongyang regime.

Beijing and Moscow, with the active assistance of their Pyongyang "scarecrow," have spared no efforts to "engage" South Korea and to remove it from the U.S. sphere of influence.

Jiang Zemin's visit to North Korea on Sept. 3-5, 2001, focused on North Korea's role in stabilizing the Korean peninsula. At the same moment, Beijing media published articles calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea. This coincided with a new Russian proposal to expand the Trans-Siberian Railway to Pyongyang and Seoul, as well as to construct a pipeline from the natural gas deposits in the Irkutsk Region of Eastern Siberia to South Korea, via North Korean territory.

During the last months of 2001, North Korea – evidently with Beijing's and Moscow's blessings – redoubled its efforts toward development of chemical and biological warfare. This was accompanied by a new "anti-imperialist" propaganda campaign in the Pyongyang media. Without doubt, by the end of 2001, the Pyongyang regime has become a useful ally of both China and Russia in Northeast Asia, as well as a smart middleman in supplying very dangerous "asymmetric technologies" (chemical and biological weapon technologies)" and short-to-intermediate-range ballistic missiles to rogue countries of the Middle East.

In effect, North Korea has become a "department store" for these nations of concern and for terrorist movements interested in acquiring missile and chemical-biological warfare technologies.

North Korea's development of nuclear arms is also proceeding apace. Simultaneously, China and Russia are guaranteeing the safety of the Pyongyang regime against possible retaliatory strikes by U.S. or Japanese forces.

Dr. Alexandr V. Nemets is a consultant to the American Foreign Policy Council. He is co-author of "Chinese-Russian Military Relations, Fate of Taiwan and New Geopolitics."

Dr. Thomas J. Torda has been a Chinese linguist specializing in science and technology with FBIS, and a Chinese/Russian defense technology consultant with the Office of Naval Intelligence.

[TapTheSource]

I don't necessarily buy the notion that relations ever soured between North Korea and the Russia/Red China alliance. There is one thing this article makes clear, however. Russia and Red China are using North Korea as a surrogate to advance their global agenda. They've got us going around in circles re: North Korea's nukes while they quitly use North Korea to arm just about every terror nation and terrorist group imaginable.

[TapTheSource]

ping!

[Ptarmigan]

North Korea was Russia, at the time Soviet Unions creation after World War II.

[ApesForEvolution]

I've been pointing this out for years, but the globalist tools have been blinded and deaf to the machine being built to slaughter or make us captive...

[TapTheSource]

Couldn't agree with you more. You might also want to check out post #3 re: the link below:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1279192/posts

[JasonC]

To be snookered, you first have to believe somebody. We don't believe them to begin with. Of course they support NK, NK is a proxy troublemaker just separated enough from them to leave plausible deniability between them and its misdeeds. Everyone involved knows it.

[TapTheSource]

Then why do we go on with the charade of multilateral talks (Russia, Red China, US, etc) with N. Korea? It only serves to take the focus off of how North Korea is being used as a surrogate for Russian/Red Chinese arms proliferation to terrorists and terrorist nations. It reminds me of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the Soviets promised to get rid of the Nukes in Cuba in exchange for US acceptance of a permanent Communist dictatorship 90 miles from Florida.

[dasboot]

So that's why we're pullin' our guys out of SK. Don't want them exposed to fallout or flash injuries.

[JasonC]

It is simply a way of rubbing their noses in the fact that we know. We refuse to negotiate with NK alone, because we know perfectly well the shots are being called elsewhere. We demand those making the actual decisions are also at the table, as well as their lacky. Their lacky does not like that, we say, "tough toenails". That is all.

[TapTheSource]

post #7 continued...

That is, we exchanged getting rid of nukes in Cuba for accepting a permanent terror-supporting Communist regime 90 miles from our southern flank. Lots of similarities between the Cuban Missile Crisis and N. Korean nukes IMHO.

[TapTheSource]

That's exactly what we did during the Cuban Missile Crisis. We lost that one. What makes you think it will be any different this time?

[yankeedame]

Chinese and Russian Cooperation With North Korea

I don't know about Russia but I do know that historically speaking -- we're talking 1500+ years -- there has never been any love lost between Korea (North and/or South) and China. And, again historically speaking, there has never been much love lost between China (Tartars, Manchu, etc.) and Russia (Slavs,etc.). Plus let's not forget that all are communists, and communists governments have a well know penchant of cutting the throats of other communist governments.

"Cooperation" among three perennial enemies, three communists government (each claiming to be the "true" one). IMHO it is an alliance held together by self-interest, greed, and wisps of smoke.

[JasonC]

We will simply tell China to take away the present NK government, or their nukes, or we will take away either or both ourselves by direct military action. We just do not choose to do so right this minute, because we have other fish to fry, first. That is just move order.

[dasboot]

Greetings, O hard-working, most cogent one!

True that you are now in MA? Celebrity Proximity thrill!

signed, A. Fann.

[TapTheSource]

"We will simply tell China to take away the present NK government, or their nukes, or we will take away either or both ourselves by direct military action. We just do not choose to do so right this minute, because we have other fish to fry, first. That is just move order."

Why not just expose N. Korea nuclear farce and Russia and Red China's arms proliferation (to our enemies) via N. Korea instead?

[StJacques]

There are reasons to view recent Chinese and Russian exchanges with North Korea as troubling, but I think there are some problems with the inner logic of portions -- not all, because there is some good evidence presented there -- of the above article. I'd like to address a couple of those.

First of all; the sheer volume of Chinese trade with South Korea places a far greater burden on the Chinese to seek a diplomatic settlement of North Korean difficulties than all of the North Korean exchanges with China. The article makes clear that in 1998 that trade surpassed $21 Billion. It goes without saying that there must be significant interests within China who recognize that promoting tensions between North and South Korea, and by extension the U.S., will put all of that at risk, and I don't think the Chinese want that at all. But the Chinese have little guidance of their trade relations from above, simply put, China is open for business and moral or policy issues do not enter into the equation.

The Russians are undoubtedly attempting to remain a player in East Asia as well as attempting to expand markets for their oil and natural gas resources, which are big money makers for the Russian government. Since China has long resisted becoming dependent upon Russia for anything, especially energy resources, it only makes sense that the Russians would want to cultivate South Korea and Japan as customers. I'll leave Japan alone here for the moment, but getting natural gas resources to South Korea would of necessity require North Korean cooperation, and I think that would be a good thing, because it would establish mutual economic interests on the part of all parties involved to avoid destabilizing the Korean peninsula. Trade promotes peace.

But what the authors of the article point out that is genuinely troubling for the U.S. is the way in which China, Russia, and North Korea are reacting to the proposed East Asian Theater Missile Defense system. And I will point out that several of the European powers are trying to check our deployment of that system as well. But I believe that we must go ahead with our plans to put this system in place and for a very long list of reasons, some of which include the fact that North Korea is developing both missile and nuclear technology and has on occasion used some pretty bellicose language -- some of which is cited in the article -- towards us, the Chinese have had nuclear technology for a while and have been accelerating their missile program, thanks in no small part to the Clinton administration for secretly conveying key technology to them, and our relationship with Japan, which is more important to us than anything we have going with China or Russia, is dependent upon convincing the Japanese that we can keep them safe. We have to proceed with the deployment of that system in my opinion. And I haven't mentioned anything about how China may view the deployment of the TMD system as weakening any attempt on their part to coerce Taiwan into a reconciliation entirely on mainland China's terms, something else the U.S. should oppose.

I also must take issue with one comment made after the posting of the article:

"I don't necessarily buy the notion that relations ever soured between North Korea and the Russia/Red China alliance."

It can be legitimately argued that both Russia and China continued to maintain relations with North Korea through the years that have been closer than their public pronouncements. But the "Russia/Red China alliance" has not existed for a long time. In the late 1960's the Soviet Union and China fought and undeclared border war over disputes between the two on China's northern and western borders, the Chinese viewed with alarm the close relations between the Soviets and the Vietnamese as the War in Vietnam came to a close, the Chinese actively opposed the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and in a large sense described Soviet foreign policy as "Hegemonism," certainly not the kind of thing that indicates an alliance. But with all of this having been said there is evidence of a reconciliation between Russia and China in recent years, and the above article points to some of the evidence that suggests it is continuing.

[struwwelpeter]

I'm getting sick of seeing new enhanced-warhead RPGs taking out our Abrams in Faluja. Meanwhile, the usual suspects claim that Holy Mother Russia is our best hope, and that:

a) It's nothing personal, just business.

b) US deserves a little pay-back for giving moral support to Chechnya in the mid-1990s.

If the new SA-14s and 16s somehow find their way to the "insurgents", perhaps we should ask the Chechnyans if they want to buy a boomer or two.

Nothing personal, just to earn some foreign exchange you see.

[TapTheSource]

lol!!! Thanks for your VERY refreshing post--TTS

[JasonC]

Yes, I am in Arlington, MA at the moment. I work in Concord, MA. Where are you?

[JasonC]

Exposing does nothing. What is supposed to be the consequence? Strident leading editorials from the useful idiot crowd? The point is to stop and reverse successful proliferation.