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Sanctions only hurt those on bottom-no matter where imposed III

Tuesday, October 17th, 2006

From the Korea Herald:
Sanctions will cripple N.K. economy: KIEP
10/17/2006
Kim So-hyun

The international sanctions to be imposed on North Korea will further cut into the country’s moribund trade volume and drag it deeper into recession, a South Korean think tank said in a report released yesterday.

The sanctions – being taken under a U.N. Security Council resolution – will likely reduce the North Korean economy to a state worse than in the mid-1990s when millions died of hunger, the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy said.

“The North Korean economy is expected to contract much more severely than in the so-called ‘marching in torment’ times (in the mid-1990s),” the KIEP report said. “More financial sanctions and a block on foreign capital inflow will deepen the shortage of foreign currency, resulting in a wider gap between market and official exchange rates.”

The official exchange rate of the North Korean currency was 137 won to the U.S. dollar in the first half of 2005. However, the dollar was traded for between 1,900 won and 2,600 won in the market, up to 19 times higher than the official rate.

The prohibition of financial transactions and capital inflow is regarded as the most powerful punitive measure since it has been cited by Pyongyang as one of the main reasons for boycotting six-party talks and pressing ahead with its reported test of a nuclear device.

“Although trade accounts for less than 15 percent of North Korea’s gross domestic production, trade and support from neighboring countries allowed its economy to inch up a bit recently,” said Choi Soo-young of the Korea Institute for National Unification.

“Whereas the North could ask for international help when it suffered natural calamities such as draughts in the mid-1990s, it now has to live without such generous aid.”

Since the U.N. resolution bans direct or indirect supply of weapons or any materials that could contribute to the North’s weapons of mass destruction programs, a reduction in Chinese imports of related materials could trigger stagnation in the nation’s machinery, electronics and chemicals output, the KIEP report said.

“The trade volume between North Korea and China has surged by some 30 percent a year since 1999, and this has accelerated the North’s economic growth by 3.5 percentage points annually,” KIEP researcher Chung Seung-ho said.

China accounts for about 40 percent of North Korea’s relatively small volume of trade. South Korea, Thailand, Russia and Japan each take up 26 percent, 8.1 percent, 5.7 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, according to Chung.

It remains to be seen whether neighboring countries will take individual measures in addition to the sanctions under the U.N. Security Council resolution.

The United States, Japan and Australia are considering harsher measures of their own while South Korea and China seem reluctant to follow suit.

“As China’s involvement in the sanctions is likely to be only symbolic, the level of South Korean participation will determine the degree of the North’s economic decline,” KINU’s Choi said.

China could consider reducing its uncompensated grants to North Korea, which soared 162 percent to $38 million last year, according to KIEP.

“China is expected to partially or entirely stop the trade of machinery and electronics that could be related to weapons of mass destruction in North Korea, but it wouldn’t go as far as forbidding private commercial trade across the border,” the report said.

“Stopping the supply of crude oil, for which North Korea depends entirely on China, is unlikely.”

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Posted in Arduous March, China, Fiscal & monetary policy, International trade, Trade Statistics | Comments Closed

Business as usual in China/DPRK trade

Tuesday, October 17th, 2006

From the Asia Times:
Business as usual across the Yalu
10/17/2006
Ting-I Tsai

Pyongyang’s proclaimed successful nuclear test, which has sparked anger and fear around the world and prompted passage of more UN sanctions, is not deterring Chinese business people living on the border from doing business with North Korea. They are confident that Beijing will not enforce really harsh punishments.

“For North Korea, reform and development is still its goal. It is just a matter of time. We are still keen on doing business there,” said Zeng Chengbiao, chairman of the Zhongxu Group which is based in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province. Zeng has been planning to operate a department store in Pyongyang and is also interested in investing in mining there. Zeng said his company is preparing to announce a major investment after the Chinese Lunar New Year in February.

Zeng is a typical example of the hundreds of Chinese business people who remain enthusiastic about trading with or investing in North Korea, despite the international furor and unconfirmed reports about Pyongyang’s running out of electricity and food while major players in the Security Council debate punishments for North Korea’s nuclear test.

A sense of normality in Pyongyang and continuing routine bilateral interactions with China could be the reasons for these businessmen’s calm. “Everything is the same as usual. Lots of my clients are in town for business [after the test’s announcement],” said an anonymous Beijing-based trader, who has dealt with North Koreans for more than a decade.

In the Chinese city of Dandong on the North Korean border, and even in Pyongyang, Chinese businesspeople and citizens all claim confidence. “I checked with my friends at the customs, and they said that goods are in and out as usual,” said Liu Yen, a church worker from Dandong.

In Pyongyang, Chinese traders are still answering calls made to their North Korean 10-digit mobile phones, hoping to find more sources for soybean oil, sugar, monosodium glutamate and flour. Michel Ji, representative of Jilin Cereals, Oil, Foodstuffs, Import and Export Group in Pyongyang, who has been traveling back and forth between the two nations for four years, said that his company has imported up to10 million tons of sugar, MSG and oil from North Korea. Prices of products from China, he said, are still too high.

“There will definitely be sanctions, but none of them will affect people’s livelihoods,” Ji said.

Since Pyongyang initiated economic reforms in July 2002, Chinese businessmen have crowded into North Korea – perhaps the last virgin territory for capitalism. China’s non-financial direct investment in North Korea was about US$14.37 million in 2005 and $14.1 million in 2004, according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry.

Bilateral trade reached almost $1.4 billion in 2004, and jumped to about $1.6 billion in 2005, while during the first eight months of 2006 it hit $1 billion.

Some 40 Chinese companies from Liaoning province alone have just returned from North Korea after attending the second Pyongyang Autumn International Commercial Exhibition. A Pyongyang-Tianjin joint-venture bicycle manufacturing company, which reportedly produces 300,000 bicycles annually, dominates North Korean’s bicycle market, while more companies are waiting for the two governments’ approvals for investing in the slowly opening nation.

Shortly after Pyongyang’s announcement of its nuclear test, Tokyo declared a total ban on North Korean imports and prohibited North Korean-flagged ships from entering Japanese ports. North Korean nationals are also prohibited from entering Japan, with few exceptions.

Over the weekend, the Security Council approved the US-sponsored resolution for imposing punishing sanctions against North Korea. The sanctions demand that the North abandon its nuclear weapons program and orders all countries to prevent North Korea from importing or exporting any material for weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missiles. It orders nations to freeze assets of people or businesses connected to these programs and bans individuals from traveling there.

Furthermore, the resolution calls on all countries to inspect cargo leaving and arriving in North Korea to prevent any illegal trafficking in unconventional weapons or ballistic missiles. The final draft was softened from language authorizing searches, but was still unacceptable to China – the North’s closest ally – which said it would not carry out any searches.

“China will not go too far,” predicted Cui Yingjiu, a Beijing-based retired academic who was Kim Jong-il’s classmate during his studies at Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung University in the early 1960s. Aside from concern about China’s national interests, analysts in Beijing also doubt the significance of any harsh punishment, as they believe the North Korean economy is relatively independent.

“They can still live by simply eating grass. What would these economic sanctions really do?” said Niu Jun, professor at the Peking University’s School of International Relations, who visited North Korea in July.

Shortly after the UN resolution passed, US ambassador to the UN John Bolton told reporters that the next step was to start work on implementing the resolution. But none of the current moves are scaring away Chinese businessmen.

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Posted in Arduous March, China, International trade | Comments Closed

Chinese Banks Restricting Cash Flow to DPRK

Tuesday, October 17th, 2006

From the Choson Ilbo:
Chinese Banks Restricting Cash Flow to N.Korea
10/17/2006

Major Chinese banks are currently stopping or restricting remittances or payments to North Korea after the North’s announcement of what it claims was a nuclear test, it emerged Monday. Chinese banks in Dandong, where cross-border trade is concentrated, recently started restricting banking transactions with North Korea, an official with the South Korean Embassy in China said. The restrictions, in fact, started in March this year, when the U.S. imposed financial sanctions on Macau’s Banco Delta Asia after designating it Pyongyang’s “primary money laundering concern.”

But not all Chinese banks are doing so, each bank and branch having its own policy. Sources say it does not look as if the Chinese government is ordering them to do so; rather banks have started doing so on their own. Rumor is spreading among traders doing business with North Korea in China that all financial accounts with North Korea including those by North Korean traders in China could be frozen.

North Korean workers in China are leaving the country in droves after North’s claimed nuclear test. A businessman operating a sewing factory in Shenyang, China, said, “Some 100 North Korean workers in my factory returned home three days ago because the Chinese authorities didn’t renew their work permit.” Banks in Dandong and Shenyang, where many businesses trading with North Korea have accounts, are seeing an increasing number of them not receive payments for exports to the North. “Since the U.S. froze North Korea’s accounts in the Macau bank, it takes three or four times longer for us to get paid for imports to the North, and this is hurting us badly,” a businessman trading with the North said. “We can’t do business with the North any longer.”

As official trade between the North and China shrinks, smuggling between the two countries is thriving, local people say. An ethnic Korean in Dandong said if a North Korean vessel ships 1,000 tons of iron ore to a port here, it officially reports only 100 ton of them and smuggles the rest. Smuggling covers almost everything from iron ore to bronze, TVs, computers, petrochemical products, antiques and maritime products. That is why many feel how determined the Chinese authorities are in cracking down on smuggling will determine the success of sanctions against the North. Locals say they have not heard of any Chinese crackdown on smuggling to and from the North, nor do they expect one.

China clearly stated its opposition against military action in the UN resolution against the North over its claimed nuclear test, calling for “an appropriate level” of sanctions. Beijing says the ultimate goal should be getting the North to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear program, not forcing regime collapse. Some expect China to reduce, rather than stop, its supply of oil to the North.

Meanwhile, China is preparing for an emergency in North Korea. It is setting up barbed-wire fences along the border near the Yalu and Tumen rivers where the military units of the provinces there took charge of guarding the area three years ago. The barbed-wire fences are being extended near Changbai County and the Tumen River. A Chinese official said the fences “were put up after consultations with the North because we needed to draw up a clear border between us and North Korea because of the narrowness of the river or newly built roads.” But some say the main goal is to prevent a mass exodus of North Koreans when the regime falls apart. Experts say another reason China is building up its military strength and carrying out more military exercises near the border with the North is to prepare for regime collapse in the north. The new 60-km long road along the Yalu River is also said to serve strategic military purposes.

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Posted in Banking, China, Finance, Fiscal & monetary policy, Foreign direct investment, Iron Ore | Comments Closed

China builds wall to keep out illegal immigrants

Monday, October 16th, 2006

From the Associated Press:
China erects barbed wire fence along border with North Korea
10/16/2006
Alexa Olesen
Jae-soon Chang

China has been building a massive barbed wire and concrete fence along parts of its border with North Korea in the most visible sign of Beijing’s strained ties with its once-cozy communist neighbor.
 
Scores of soldiers have descended on farmland near the border-marking Yalu River to erect concrete barriers 2.5 to 4 meters (8 to 15 feet) tall and string barbed wire between them, farmers and visitors to the area said.
 
Last week, they reached Hushan, a collection of villages 20 kilometers (12 miles) inland from the border port of Dandong.
 
“About 100 People’s Liberation Army soldiers in camouflage started building the fence four days ago and finished it yesterday,” said a farmer, who only gave his surname, Ai. “I assume it was built to prevent smuggling and illegal crossing.”
 
Though the fence-building appears to have picked up in the days following North Korea’s claimed nuclear test last week, experts said the project was approved in 2003. Experts and a local Hushan official, who requested anonymity because of the project’s sensitivity, said the military was in charge of the building.
 
A Defense Ministry spokesman, Ye Xing, declined comment, saying he was not authorized to release information on border security.
 
The fence marks a noticeable change in China’s approach to its North Korean neighbor. In the decades following their shared fight against U.S.-led U.N. forces in the Korean War, China left their border lightly guarded, deploying most of its forces in the northeast toward its enemy, the Soviet Union.
 
But the border became a security concern for Beijing in the past decade, as North Korea’s economy collapsed and social order crumbled in some places. Tens of thousands of refugees began trickling across the border into northeast China, fording the Yalu and Tumen rivers or walking across the ice in winter.
 
Professor Kim Woo-jun at the Institute of East and West Studies in Seoul said China built wire fences on major defection routes along the Tumen River in a project that began in 2003, and since September this year, China has been building wire fences along the Yalu River.
 
“The move is mainly aimed at North Korean defectors,” Kim said. “As the U.N. sanctions are enforced … the number of defectors are likely to increase as the regime can’t take care of its people … I think the wire fence work will likely go on to control this.”
 
But he said he also believes that Beijing wants to firmly mark its border with the North along the two rivers.
 
Kim said China and the North drew their border in a secret treaty. That treaty wasn’t reported to the United Nations and therefore does not apply to a third country, like South Korea. China is concerned that South Korea may claim a different border after absorbing or unifying with the North.
 
Reporters who visited the border area in the past week saw about 500 meters (1,640 feet) of newly erected barbed wire fence north of Dandong, mainly along river banks and occasionally broken up by mountain areas or military guard posts.
 
A duck farmer in Hushan, who would only give his surname Han, said that soldiers began putting up the fence near his farm last Monday afternoon — the same day that North Korea claims to have carried out an underground nuclear test.

 

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Posted in China, Emigration | Comments Closed

China port deal still ‘on’ after nuke test

Sunday, October 15th, 2006

From NK Zone:
Michael Rank
10/15/2006

The Chinese businessman who is planning to develop the North Korean port of Rajin under a 50-year agreement with the border city of Hunchun says the deal remains on track despite NK’s nuclear test.

Fan Yingsheng, a property developer from Hunan province, said a road between the two cities should be completed within 15 months but gave few other details.

He told the Shanghai Evening Post [in Chinese] that U.N. sanctions “are something that we are expecting, and won’t have much effect on us.”

“After the nuclear test, North Korean colleagues did not tell my company about anything being different, I didn’t even receive any phone calls from them, which shows that it’s business as usual.

”So I am still planning to fly to Pyongyang to sign an agreement as planned, and haven’t thought of changing my schedule.“

Fan was speaking from Hunchun on October 12, shortly after meeting a group of North Korean officials, and was about to head across the border to Raseon where his company apparently has its main North Korean office. He said this visit had been scheduled a month ago.

The ceding of Rajin, an ice-free port with a handling capacity of three million tonnes a year, will give access to the sea to inland areas of northeast China which at present must send freight long distances by rail to the port of Dalian on the Bohai gulf.

The agreement also provides for the construction of a 5-10 square km industrial zone and a 67 km highway, and envisages that the Rajin area will become a processing zone for Chinese goods which will then be re-exported to southern China.

Fan is reported to have put up half the initial capital investment of 60 million euros ($70 million). The sum could not be denominated in dollars for political reasons.

Fan said in July that the Chinese side had approved the leasing of the port as had the city of Raseon, and “all we are waiting for is for the Korean central government to give its approval…”

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Posted in China, Rason Economic and Trade Zone (Rajin-Sonbong) | Comments Closed

China should accept more DPRK immigrants

Sunday, October 15th, 2006

From the Wall Street Journal:
Let Them Go: China should open its border to North Korean refugees
10/15/2006
Melanie Kilbatrick

If China is to assume what it considers to be its rightful place as a great power, now is the moment. The world is looking to Beijing as the only government with a measure of influence over its lunatic nuclear ward in the Hermit Kingdom. The question is, will it use it?

China says it favors “punitive” actions on Pyongyang for its apparent nuclear test last week, and there’s talk–so far desultory–of sanctions. But no one is speaking publicly about Beijing’s biggest source of influence: the 900-mile border it shares with North Korea. Opening the frontier to refugees would put pressure on Kim Jong Il to give up his nukes or watch his regime implode. As Mark Palmer, U.S. ambassador to Hungary in 1989, has noted, the East German refugees who passed through that country en route to West Germany sped the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The plight of North Korean refugees hiding in northeastern China is a humanitarian crisis that has received scant global notice. No one knows how many are in hiding or how many Beijing has deported back to North Korea in violation of its obligations under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. China refuses to let the United Nations or other countries help the North Koreans.

Now, three official Chinese government documents–obtained privately and smuggled out of the country–show that the humanitarian crisis may be more dire than widely believed and the burden on China heavier. Two of the documents are from the Public Security Bureau–one from the Border Police and the other from a police station along the border. The third is from the Finance Bureau of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, home to many ethnic Koreans.

The documents were obtained by a U.S.-South Korean group that helps North Korean refugees navigate the underground railroad to safety out of China. The group prefers to remain anonymous for fear that its work could be endangered. They have been vouched for to me by two other sources, one on Capitol Hill and another at an international human-rights organization.

The Border Police document, dated Jan. 10, 2005, begins blandly enough: “From the start of illegal border crossings in 1983,” it says, “the number of illegal immigrants from North Korea that have stayed in China has increased every year.” It adds, “Public Security and Armed Police departments have strengthened preventative and deportation efforts.”

The numbers it reports are newsworthy–and staggering: “To date, almost 400,000 North Korean illegal immigrants have entered China and large numbers continue to cross the border illegally.” And, “As of the end of December 2004, 133,009 North Korean illegal immigrants have been deported.” While Chinese authorities obviously know how many refugees they have deported, by definition they can’t know how many are in hiding. The estimate of 400,000 is sure to be low.

The Yanbian Finance Bureau document, dated Oct. 19, 2004, provides further evidence of the extent of the crisis. It is a letter to provincial authorities requesting more money to help with deportation efforts. “According to statistics from the Public Security, border police and civil administration, more than 93,000 refugees are still living in Yanbian Prefecture.” The letter goes on to say that although the Border Police Bureau has established “six new refugee-deportation and detention centers,” it does not have sufficient funds to do the job. Yanbian requests 30 million yuan ($3.8 million) a year “to solve this financial problem.”

It’s the third document, though, that puts this “financial problem” in human terms. It’s a report, dated Oct. 7, 2003, from a police station in Badaogou Precinct, near Baishan City, in Zhangbai Korean Autonomous County, also in Jilin Province.

“At 7 a.m. on Oct. 3, 2003,” Case Report No. 055 begins, “a report was received from the public of several corpses floating in the Yalu River. Officers from the Precinct immediately responded and organized personnel and by 10 a.m. 53 corpses had been recovered.

“At 5 a.m. on Oct. 4 an additional three corpses were recovered for a total of 56 corpses. There were 36 males and 20 females, including seven children (five male and two female). After examination of the personal effects it was determined that the dead were citizens of the DPRK [North Korea]. Autopsies confirmed that all 56 had been shot to death. It is estimated that the dead were shot by Korean border guards while attempting to cross into China.”

While Pyongyang bears ultimate responsibility for the abuse of its citizens, China is complicit. Its policy of tracking down and repatriating refugees amounts to a death sentence for many returnees. It’s a crime to leave the workers’ paradise, and North Koreans who are caught and deported are shipped off to internment camps or worse.

If Beijing wants to send a message to Pyongyang about its nuclear program, it could announce that, effective immediately, it is taking several steps: It will stop deporting North Koreans, allow the United Nations to set up refugee camps, and permit the resettlement of refugees in third countries, from which they could go to South Korea, whose constitution codifies its moral responsibility to accept its Northern cousins, or to other countries willing to take them in. The U.S., which so far has accepted a mere eight North Koreans, could step up to the plate here.

The Border Police document notes that since the early 1980s there have been six instances of mass migrations that have coincided with North Korea’s famines. Now, winter is coming, and there are already reports of food shortages. Allowing the world to help the North Korean refugees in China would help Beijing deal with a problem that is likely to get worse.

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Posted in China, Emigration | Comments Closed

PRC/DPRK border post eases with iron deal

Saturday, October 7th, 2006

From NK Zone:

DPRK/PRC border controls have been eased at an iron mine which a Chinese company now runs. Xinhua news agency reported that the border post at Sanhe in Jilin province was now open 12 hours a day instead of eight and a “green channel” had been introduced to reduce customs delays.

Sanhe is opposite the Hoeryong iron mine which is run by a Heilongjiang company under a deal signed in June. The report dated Oct 1 gave no further details of the agreement.

Hoeryong is about 70 km northeast of Musan, said to be North Korea’s largest iron mine, with which Tonghua Steel is planning to sign a seven billion yuan ($880 million), 50-year exploration deal. Chinese officials said last year an agreement would be signed soon but there has been no word of a deal being signed.

Michael Rank story here and the Nautilus Institute last month released two reports on Chinese-NK economic ties. Report and Presentation 1.  Report 2.

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Posted in China, Iron Ore | Comments Closed

China provides N. Korea with relief goods, first shipment since missile tests

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006

Yonhap
9/20/2006

China has sent relief supplies to flood victims in North Korea, the North’s state media said Wednesday, amid reports that the two communist neighbors were trying to restore ties that were frayed following Pyongyang’s missile tests in July.

“The government of China provided the DPRK with aid materials including food and diesel fuel in connection with flood damage,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch.

The one-sentence article did not provide details such as the size of relief goods, but they would be the first Chinese aid shipment to the impoverished North since the latter defiantly test-launched seven missiles on July 5, drawing strong international condemnation.

China voted for a U.N. resolution condemning the missile launches and imposing weapons-related sanctions on the North, undermining its traditionally strong ties with North Korea.

After the North’s missile launches, China sent top government officials such as Vice Premier Hui Liangyu and Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei to Pyongyang to discuss the issue, but they failed to meet leader Kim Jong-il. In the past, Kim has usually received courtesy calls by visiting Chinese delegates.

The two countries have recently shown signs of resolving their soured ties, however, as the North remains locked in a global standoff over its nuclear and missile programs.

On Sept. 11, North Korea’s No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam said, “It’s a firm policy of the DPRK to make efforts to strengthen the traditional friendship with China,” while meeting China’s new ambassador Liu Xiaoming, according to China’s Xinhua news agency.

Three days later, Qin Gang, a spokesman at China’s Foreign Ministry, said Beijing will strengthen ties with Pyongyang, saying its goal of preserving friendly ties “has been consistent and remains unchanged.”

China is believed to have been the largest donor of aid to North Korea, which has resorted to outside handouts since 1995 when its state-controlled economy collapsed due to economic mismanagement and natural disasters.

North Korea was hit hard by torrential rains in mid-July. Its official media said hundreds of people were killed or went missing, while arable land capable of producing 100,000 tons of grains was wiped out.

China also hosted several rounds of six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear weapons program, each of which ended without much progress. The North has boycotted the disarmament talks since November, citing U.S.-imposed sanctions on it for alleged counterfeiting, money-laundering and other financial crimes.

A series of latest media reports speculated that North Korean leader Kim may visit China soon to promote the bilateral ties and discuss the nuclear and missile dispute.

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Posted in China, International Aid | Comments Closed

China eyes Mt. Pektu III

Friday, September 15th, 2006

From the Korea Times:
China’s Ambition Over Mt. Paektu Angers Koreans
Lee Jin-woo
9/15/2006

A single torch lit at the top of Mount Paektu – the Korean Peninsula’s highest mountain, erected near the North Korean-Chinese border – angered South Koreans earlier this month.

The torch was lit for the sixth Winter Asian Games to be held in Changchun, China from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4 next year. The host city’s mayor said the mountain was chosen as the torch flaming site on Sept. 6 because three rivers _ Tuman, Amrok and Songhua _ originate there. Tuman and Amrok rivers are also known as Tumen and Yalu in Chinese.

Not many South Koreans, however, see the move merely as part of the athletic event. Many see it as the Chinese government’s sly move to promote the mountain, which Koreans regard as a sacred place, as its very own.

Under an agreement struck in 1962, China and North Korea, two sovereign states and U.N. members, agreed to share the mountain. The North controls 54.5 percent of the mountain, and China occupies the remaining 45.5 percent.

On Sept. 5, another news report on China’s move to hold the 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Mount Paektu surprised South Koreans.

Based on a press conference by a Chinese official from Jilin Province in northeastern China, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that China unveiled its intention to hold the international winter sports festival at Mount Paektu or Changbai-shan as it is known by the Chinese.

The report enraged many South Koreans, who have already been upset by China’s moves to put the 2,744-meter mountain on the UNESCO’s “World Geopark” list and similar efforts by Beijing to register it with the U.N. agency as a “World Heritage” site.

Dubbed the “Mount Paektu project,” China’s actions are believed by many South Koreans to be part of the “Northeast Project,” a Chinese academic project to reexamine ancient history in the region. Many Koreans view the project as an attempt to distort ancient Korean history in the northeastern territory of what is now China, including the Koguryo Kingdom (37 B.C.-A.D. 668) and the Palhae Kingdom (698-926).

Unlike the angry South Korean public and news media, the government has remained calm over China’s recent provocations.

“We acknowledge that a provincial government official in China did express a tentative future plan for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, but the central Chinese administration has not revealed any plan,” an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity.

“There have been suspicions over the construction of a new international airport near the mountain, but it’s hard to link the project to the winter sports event,” he added.

Once the Fusong airport, located just a 10-minute drive from Mount Paektu, is completed by August 2008, some 540,000 passengers are expected to use it, reports said.

Another ranking government official also said most Chinese officials dismissed such allegations, saying, “Preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympics in China has made us too busy to push ahead with another massive project.”

On Sept. 8, Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon of the main opposition Grand National Party disclosed an internal document produced by South Korea’s Cultural Heritage Administration, which suggested that the Mount Paektu project is closely related to China’s plan to prepare for territorial disputes, which are expected after the possible unification of the Korean Peninsula.

The administration later said the document cannot be considered the government’s official stance over the dispute, but it has been collecting information on the matter.

Many South Korean academic and civic groups, as well as the press, have urged the government to join hands with the North to address the dispute.

The communist nation, however, has remained quiet.

Unlike in 2004, when China’s treatment of Korean history angered the two Koreas, the North has not issued a single statement denouncing its traditional ally.

The 2004 dispute seems to have subsided after Beijing promised to resolve the row through academic discussions and not allow it to develop into a political dispute.

Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea seems to have understood China’s desperate situation to push ahead with the “Northeast Project” to control various ethnic groups and suppress their increasing calls for independence.

“The Chinese government is having a hard time handling a number of minority ethnic groups,” Ryoo said. “Unless China dispatches a large number of its military units to Mount Paektu, North Korea is not likely to find fault with the recent moves.”

The professor was also skeptical about the possibility that North Korea would cooperate with the South to block any further attempts by Beijing to distort history.

“It’s hard to expect North Korea to cooperate with the South to confront China,” he said. “I believe the ongoing historical disputes with China should be resolved by scholars and civic groups, not by government-level talks.”

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China not to revise defence treaty with North Korea

Thursday, September 14th, 2006

From NewKerala.com
9/14/2006

China today scotched media reports that the ruling Communist Party may revise the 1961 defence treaty with North Korea, which is engaged in a diplomatic stand-off with the United States on the nuclear issue.

“We don’t plan to amend the treaty,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters when asked to comment on media reports.

The ruling Communist Party of China, which will hold its annual meeting in October may discuss the possibility of revising the treaty with North Korea that commits Beijing to come to the aid of Pyongyang should it come under attack from foreign forces, a Hong Kong rights group had claimed yesterday.

The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement that the revision to the mutual friendship and cooperation treaty will be discussed in a bid to prevent China from becoming involved in a possible war on the Korean Peninsula.

China is North Korea’s traditional ally and main aid provider to the reclusive nation.

Beijing is apparently unhappy with Pyongyang’s recent missile tests and refusal to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear programmes.

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Posted in China, Military | Comments Closed

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