Re: [A-List] China, U.S. Make Plans for North Korea Collapse, Reports Say

["Leigh Meyers" <the.buffalo.in.the.midst@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 11, 2008 8:25 AM, Sabri Oncu <sabri_oncu@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Any comments? Sabri
>

I think it's disinformation.

South Korea is VERY ANGRY at the U.S. right now for allowing:

>From IHT: Ethiopia bought arms from North Korea with U.S. assent

WASHINGTON: Three months after the United States successfully pressed
the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because
of that country's nuclear test, officials in the Bush administration
allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from Pyongyang in
what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to
senior U.S. officials.

The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January
in part because Ethiopian troops were in the midst of a military
offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that
aided the U.S. policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of
Africa.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/08/news/arms.php

But closer to the source:

JoongAng Daily, South Korea

'Arrogant America' Approves North Korean Weapons Sale

"The United States has violated the same U.N. Security Council
resolution it had championed and in the process, it has killed any
justification for preventing another country from importing North
Korean weapons."

EDITORIAL

April 10, 2007

South Korea - JoongAng Daily - Original Article (English)

It is beyond our understanding why the United States has ignored a
United Nations resolution and so given tacit consent to the export of
weapons by North Korea. It is simply astonishing that the United
States has seen fit to neglect such an agreement reached by the
international community. It is also an absurdity that the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treat, which the United States has pointed to as a
basis for demanding the abolishment of North Korea's nuclear weapons,
can be so easily flouted.

In full with details (and more on NK/SK relations on site:

http://watchingamerica.com/joongangdaily000032.shtml


> ++++++
>
> China, U.S. Make Plans for North Korea Collapse, Reports Say
> By Bradley K. Martin
>
>
>
> Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- China and the U.S.-South Korean alliance have begun
> planning for military intervention in case the Kim Jong Il regime in North
> Korea collapses, according to two newly published studies -- one of which
> foresees a race to occupy and control the impoverished communist country.
>
> ``If the international community did not react in a timely manner as internal
> order in North Korea deteriorated rapidly, China would seek to take the
> initiative in restoring stability,'' says a Jan. 3 report by Washington's
> Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Institute of Peace.
>
> The report says its unnamed Chinese sources see North Korea as stable for the
> moment, ``but they worry that the potential for instability may grow.''
>
> Meanwhile, U.S. and South Korean military planners were scheduled to complete
> by the end of 2007 a contingency plan for controlling the spread of weapons of
> mass destruction and dealing with refugees fleeing North Korea in the event of
> a collapse, according to an article in the January/February issue of the U.S.
> Army journal Military Review.
>
> To beat China to the punch, joint planners should go farther and prepare for a
> South Korean occupation of the North, argues the author, Army Capt. Jonathan
> Stafford.
>
> ``A failure to prepare for this monumental task risks losing the Korean dream
> of reunification to Chinese hegemony,'' he writes. ``If South Korea cannot
> occupy the DPRK immediately and effectively, China will.''
>
> DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official
> name.
>
> Multilateral Approach
>
> The authors of the CSIS-USIP report said Chinese specialists in North Korean
> affairs they interviewed hoped for a multilateral approach to North Korea
> rather than a contest for hegemony.
>
> ``In the event of instability in North Korea, China's priority will be to
> prevent refugees from flooding across the border,'' says the report, entitled
> ``Keeping an Eye on an Unruly Neighbor.'' If Chinese troops need to go into
> North Korea, ``China's strong preference is to receive formal authorization and
> coordinate closely with the United Nations,'' it says.
>
> China's People's Liberation Army has contingency plans for at least three
> possible missions in the country, the report says. One is humanitarian: refugee
> assistance, or helping with the aftermath of a natural disaster. The second is
> policing the country to maintain order. The third is to secure North Korea's
> nuclear weapons and fissile material, or clean up nuclear contamination in the
> event of a strike -- the report does not specify by whom -- on North Korean
> nuclear facilities near the border.
>
> China's Reaction
>
> A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman on Jan. 8 denied knowledge of the plan,
> according to Agence France Press. ``I have never heard of nor seen the
> so-called plan mentioned in the report,'' AFP cited the spokeswoman saying.
>
> Regarding nuclear-related contingencies, ``some Chinese experts say explicitly
> that they favor holding a discussion on stability in North Korea in official
> channels with the United States,'' the report says.
>
> China is the organizer and host of ongoing talks with the U.S., North and South
> Korea, Japan and Russia on denuclearizing the North.
>
> Stafford in his article argues that ``the Chinese have been busy laying the
> political, diplomatic and historical foundations for an occupation and perhaps
> even an annexation of North Korea.''
>
> `Puppet State'
>
> ``China wants to develop its landlocked, economically backward northeast by
> gaining access to nearby North Korean seaports,'' Stafford writes. ``China
> could achieve all this by establishing a puppet state or by fully incorporating
> North Korea into China proper.''
>
> Urging that Americans ``take the threat of regime collapse in North Korea as
> seriously as China does,'' Stafford says the U.S. ``should begin creating the
> diplomatic conditions now to justify and support a South Korean-led occupation
> of North Korea.''
>
> The U.S. should stay in the background and leave it to South Koreans, who share
> a language and culture with North Korea. Keeping American soldiers from setting
> foot in North Korea ``would also strengthen the U.S. diplomatic case for
> preventing Chinese forces from moving into the country.''
>
> Not all experts see an advantage for the first country to move into North Korea
> if it collapses, especially after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
>
> ``The reconstruction will be a mess, and a lot of people will get hurt even
> under the best possible scenarios, so everybody who will be in charge of
> post-Kim Korea is likely to be discredited,'' Andrei Lankov, North Korea
> specialist at Seoul's Kookmin University, wrote Jan. 8 on the blog OneFreeKorea
> in response to the Stafford article.
>
> To contact the reporter on this story: Bradley K. Martin in Tokyo at
> bmartin18@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Last Updated: January 10, 2008 22:11 EST
>
>
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