BEIJING - 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.
