MANILA DAILY: CHINA, RUSSIA MUST PRESS N. KOREA TO RETURN TO NEGOTIATION TABLE

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06520062
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: March 3, 2017
• Case Number: F-2016-00910
• Publication Date: April 17, 2009

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Manila Daily: China, Russia Must Press N. Korea To Return to
Negotiation Table (U)
SEP20090417001002 Manila The Manila Times Online in English 17 Apr 09 (U)
[Editorial: "Russia and China must press N. Korea to negotiate" (U)]
[OSC Transcribed Text]
[Text disseminated as received without OSC editorial intervention.]
ALL the UN nuclear experts and inspectors of its International Atomic Energy
Agency arrived from Pyongyang in Beijing on Thursday. They had been ordered
to leave by North Korea (NK), which earlier had declared it would no longer
participate in the 6-party talks on disarmament (read: making North Korea
abandon its nuclear-arms ambitions). At the same time, Pyongyang also said it
would now reactivate its nuclear weapons program.
UN International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors left the main site in the
Yongbyon nuclear complex after switching off and/or removing surveillance
cameras and their seals.
In 2008, when prospects were bright of North Korea and the other five countries--
South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States--reaching a happy turn
in the 6-party negotiations, Kim Jong ll agreed to blow up parts of the Yongbyon
complex. At that point, Pyongyang expected more generous aid and the removal
of UN and Western sanctions. US President Bush removed NK from the US list
of evil terrorist countries. Not too long after, though, negotiations soured and
broke down. This, from the NK's viewpoint, was because the UN, the USA, Japan
and South Korea were not abiding by agreements reached. The US, Japan and
South Korea sides claimed the North had not really dismantled its nuke program.
Kim Jong ll's whims
This is not the first time NK has left the negotiation table. Every time it did so
these last 15 years, it ended up getting more aid and money--amounting to
billions of US dollars--from S. Korea, Japan and the USA. Each time, of course, it
once more vowed to stop trying to develop nuclear weapons.
In the past seven years, the North Koreans have in a sense held the world
hostage to Kim Jong ll's whims.
What makes the situation more dangerous this time is the possibility that
Western and Israeli intelligence reports are true. These say that Pyongyang has
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actually been all the while selling its technology to Iran and militant Arab
countries, like Yemen. That technology is not only for the development of high-
grade plutonium but also the rocket technology it demonstrated in last April 5's
rocket launch.
That rocket firing, the North has maintained, had nothing to do with weaponry but
purely to launch a satellite, an act which it said does not violate any international
agreement or treaty. But the United Nations Security Council condemned the
rocket launching just the same because the technology for sending satellites into
orbit and firing missiles are similar. Previous UN Security Council resolutions bar
North Korea from engaging in ballistic missile-related activity.
UN sanctions on North Korea
The North has been subject to several UN-adopted sanctions. These limit the
North's ability to do normal commercial relations with the rest of the world. Its two
long-lasting friends, Russia and China, dating back to the time when the Soviet
Union and China were aggressively communist, have been vetoing more
rigorous sanctions against it. Both have been moderating NK's anger against the
West, obviously as long as doing so would serve their interests.
The whole world wishes to see Pyongyang go back to the negotiating table.
Only Russia and China can pressure the North to do so.
Sanctions don't work against NK
Sanctions only work when they deprive a country of something it cannot do
without. North Korea has been such a world pariah that it is really not getting
anything under normal means from any foreign country. It gets most of its needs
from Russia and China, with whom it has unusually warm and tight historical
bonds and, in the case of China, which is still ruled by a communist party,
"fraternal ties" in addition.
Without Russia and China supporting the United Nations objective of making the
North less intransigent and give up its nuclear-arms ambitions, Pyongyang will
eventually become a nuclear-weapons power. And it will merrily cash in on that
status by helping other countries also become nuke powers. There goes the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
China backed the UN condemnation of its ally and protege last week. At the
same time as it voted for the Security Council resolution against the North, the
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said, "We hope all parties could
proceed from the long term and overall interest, exert calmness and restraint and
properly handle relevant issues so as to devote themselves to safeguarding the
6-party talks." This was obviously a message to both Pyongyang and the USA,
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Japan and South Korea--but not to Russia, which presumably shares most of
China's views about Pyongyang.
Russia's ITAR-Tass News Agency quoted Russia's chief nuclear envoy, Deputy
Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin, as saying that the "most important task" is to
resume the talks and not to impose heavier sanctions on North Korea.
For years Pyongyang has shown an ugly, warlike face, especially to Japan and
South Korea. And yet, both countries, especially the South, has been its source
of considerably huge amounts of aid.
We hope the North has not become too big even for its patrons, Russia and
China, to calm down.
[Description of Source: Manila The Manila Times Online in English -- Website of
one of the Philippines' oldest privately owned newspapers that is widely read and
respected; URL: http://www.manilatimes.neti]
Source Metadata (U)
Source Name: The Manila Times Online
Source Type(s): Internet
Source City: Manila
Source Country: Philippines
Source-Date: 04/17/2009
Source End Date: 04/17/2009
Language(s): English
Article Metadata (U)
Document ID: SEP20090417001002
Entry Date: 04/17/2009
Version Number: 01
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Processing Indicator: OSC Transcribed Text
Precedence: Priority
Country: China, North Korea, Philippines, Russia, United States
Region: Asia, Eurasia, Americas
Sub-Region: East Asia, South East Asia, Russia, North Americas
International Organization: UN
Topic: INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL, PROLIFERATION, URGENTrO)
Media Metadata (U)
Program Title(s):
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