China Pulls Its Punches
On North KoreaBy Asia Times Online
18 October, 2006
Asia Times OnlineBEIJING - China has begun inspecting cargo trucks traveling across its border with North Korea as part of moves to enforce United Nations sanctions on the North.
The news comes as South Korea announced on Tuesday that there were signs that North Korea was preparing for another nuclear explosion at the site of the first test last week. Following earlier doubts, the US on Monday confirmed that the detonation last week was in fact nuclear, and not dynamite or some other material, as some had speculated.
China is taking action against North Korea following the
unanimous approval of UN Security Council Resolution 1718 at the weekend. In part, this bans North Korean trade in materials linked to its weapons of mass destruction program, ballistic missiles, high-end conventional weapons and luxury goods.A sticking point was over the issue of inspections to control such trade. "Inspections yes, but inspections are different from interception and interdiction," Wang Guangya, the Chinese ambassador at the UN, told the media in an apparent reference to stopping ships at sea, which is one of the UN sanctions agreed on Saturday.
The news of Chinese inspections comes amid increasing questions over whether China would fully honor the UN resolution. Chinese customs officials were seen opening trucks bound for North Korea in the border city of Dandong on Monday and examining their cargo and passengers, local residents said. Some customs officials climbed into trucks, but it wasn't verified whether they opened each container.
The Oriental Morning Post, a Chinese newspaper, also said China had strengthened its inspection of cargo on ships bound for the North at its eastern border port city of Hunchun. The report said China had banned tourists from entering North Korea across bridges.
The wording in the resolution that authorizes inspections of cargo leaving and arriving in North Korea was watered down at the request of China. Instead of using the term "require", the resolution "requests" member states to comply.
Also on Monday, Chinese soldiers were seen continuing their work to build a barbed wire and concrete fence along parts of its border with North Korea. China has been constructing wire fences 2.5-4 meters tall amid speculation that China is taking measures to prepare for a possible influx of refugees should the North Korean regime collapse.
North Korea defiantly conducted its first-ever nuclear test on October 9, despite repeated international warnings. The UN Security Council approved sanctions six days later, but regional powers remained at odds over how to enforce the punitive actions.
South Korea said it would continue key reconciliation projects with the North, which critics say might have funneled much-needed funds to Pyongyang's nuclear programs. China is also opposed to excessively harsh measures, believing they might further destabilize the region.
But on Monday, Wu Bangguo, the second-highest-ranking official in the Chinese Communist Party, indicated that China was willing to impose sanctions on North Korea in line with other countries. "We need to make North Korea realize that it will pay a high price" for conducting a nuclear weapons test, Wu told Chikage Ogi, president of the Japanese diet's upper house, in a meeting in Beijing.
This is the first time that a high-ranking member of China's leadership has used such tough language as "high price" in describing its stance on the North. Wu is chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress.
His remark is believed to be intended to inform North Korea that China is deeply disturbed by the nuclear test, while showing the international community that Beijing is taking a firm stance, as its Foreign Affairs Ministry officials have repeatedly said.
But Wu also stressed the need for caution in imposing specific sanctions, saying, "We cannot force North Korea into a tight corner." It is this dilemma in Beijing that could place the United States and China, two veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, on course for a political showdown.
One of North Korea's longstanding political, economic and military allies in the region, China accounts for nearly 40% of all Pyongyang's imports and exports.
Ambassador Wang said that the proposed inspections - aimed primarily at preventing illicit trafficking in nuclear, biological and chemical weapons - could create "conflict that could have serious implications for the region".
He said that China did not approve of the practice of inspecting cargo to and from North Korea, and he had reservations about related provisions of the resolution.
But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is due in the region this week, insisted that China had an obligation to implement the resolution which it had supported. She pointed out that China was part of "a Security Council resolution that demands very clear cooperation of member states to make certain that dangerous goods are not getting in and out of North Korea".
Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and the author of several books on the United Nations, said the compromises in the resolution have already weakened implementation.
"The resolution calls on member states to prevent 'illicit trafficking in nuclear, chemical or biological weapons', but only mentions inspecting cargo, implying the forcible inspection of North Korean ships, as one example of what should be done," Bennis told Inter Press Service.
But there is nothing that specifically requires any country to participate in such actions - particularly because the resolution specifies that countries' actions should be consistent with international law and "in accordance with their national authorities and legislation".
So China was not obligated to take any specific action in that regard, said Bennis, author of Challenging Empire: How People, Governments and the UN Defy US Power.
Asked if this was the first time a permanent member had openly expressed reservations on a resolution it had supported, Bennis said: "It is certainly not the first time that a divided Security Council has passed a resolution under US or other pressure with some or even most council members having no intention of insuring implementation."
Still, Washington failed in its attempt to keep its options open to invoke Chapter VII of the UN charter to justify a possible future military attack on Pyongyang - as it did in Iraq more than three years ago. Chapter VII deals with "action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression". Under the resolution, the Security Council at the weekend specifically singled out article 41 in Chapter VII which says that "the Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force" should be employed to give effect to its decision.
The US was forced to compromise on Chapter VII because of strong opposition - both from Russia and China - over the possible invocation of that chapter for a future military attack on Pyongyang.
When the US-led coalition invaded Iraq more than three years ago, the administration of President George W Bush legally justified it on the ground that the resolution adopted by the Security Council called for military action under Chapter VII of the UN charter.
Despite the fact that the resolution did not specifically call for military action against Iraq, Washington interpreted the existing resolution to justify its action. The crucial element in the resolution was the invocation of Chapter VII.
But that interpretation brought a strong negative response from Secretary General Kofi Annan himself, who unequivocally ruled that the Iraq war was "illegal" because it did not have clear and unambiguous Security Council authorization.
The argument was that there should have been a second resolution calling for military action: a resolution which the Bush administration knew would have been vetoed by either China or Russia, or both.
Meanwhile, Saturday's resolution demanded that North Korea not conduct any further nuclear test or launch a ballistic missile. If Tuesday's reports are correct, Pyongyang is about to ignore this demand.
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