North Korea: China digs in its heels
posted at 9:40 am on July 11, 2006 by Bryan
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North Korea launches missiles in the general direction of Japan. Japan responds with UN resolution that includes sanctions to punish North Korea. China calls Japan’s resolution an “overreaction.” Methinks any real chance of getting sanctions through the UNSC just died.
China condemned a Japan-sponsored U.N. resolution to slap sanctions on North Korea over its missile tests on Tuesday, calling it an over-reaction that would split the Security Council.
The statement came as a top U.S. envoy flew into Beijing, seeking a briefing on China’s urgent efforts to resolve the crisis by diplomatic means.
The U.N. Security Council delayed a vote overnight on the resolution to impose sanctions on the isolated state to allow time for a high-level Chinese delegation to talk to Pyongyang.
“The Chinese side thinks the concerned draft resolution is an over-reaction. If approved, it will aggravate contradictions and increase tension,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference. “It will hurt efforts to resume six-party talks as well as lead to the U.N. Security Council splitting.”
It would seem to me that the UNSC is split because China consistently shields North Korea from the consequences of its actions, with Russia a close second in that game. The real problem, and it’s not one that will be solved any time soon if ever, is that you have in Russia and China two countries that use their UNSC vetoes to assist rogue states like North Korea and Iran.
The end result of this is fairly predictable. We’ll get a resolution expressing “regret” or “alarm,” but it will be toothless. Japan, realizing that it will have to defend itself and that the UN is useless, will speed up changing its constitution and begin to buy and develop offensive military capabilities including aerial refueling, a fleet of longer range fighter-bombers than the fighters it currently flies, and medium-range missiles. Japan will develop and upgrade its submarine fleet, equipping it with missiles capable of pounding North Korean launch platforms and other threatening facilities across that country.
Japan’s re-arming will spark an arms race around Asia, at the very least.
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Beyond an arms race, Japan’s rearming will:
a) Scare some sense into some of these bad actors
b) Allow the U.S. to scale back some of its Asian presence
Indeed, any residual Pearl Harbor fears on our side are probably mitigated by nuke fears on theirs.
Let the Samurai wield his own sword again.
Kid from Brooklyn on July 11, 2006 at 9:46 AM
Bang Bang!!!!
Shmo on July 11, 2006 at 10:23 AM
Then the Chinese will have no one to blame but themselves if Japan re-arms. They can’t have it both ways.
Abigail Adams on July 11, 2006 at 10:27 AM
Unfortunately, while Japan can probably afford to rearm, China cannot afford to arm up without hurting its citizens. Which is the ONLY reason its unfortunate, because if they couldn’t afford to get into the arms race then we might see some real progress over there. But they will just rob their citizens to stay ahead and turn into the next North Korea.
RH
RobertHuntingdon on July 11, 2006 at 10:36 AM
Hmmm…. could we have a second market for the YF-22? Could really help the American economy…
Romeo13 on July 11, 2006 at 10:51 AM
I believe there is a variant of that in place, known as the Joint Strike Fighter. Experts, please correct me if I’m wrong.
Kid from Brooklyn on July 11, 2006 at 11:09 AM
Sorry about that. No word on the JSF (for Japan) yet. They might be in on the Raptors though.
Kid from Brooklyn on July 11, 2006 at 11:29 AM
Keep it up and they will both be seeing the Rising Sun march up thought their countries once again!
Dread Pirate Roberts VI on July 11, 2006 at 1:30 PM
True, but an unaffordable arms race could hasten the demise of the thug government. It happened to the Soviets, why not the Chinese?
ScottG on July 11, 2006 at 3:34 PM
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