Monday, February 28, 2011

China Blocks UN Report on North Korea

« Chinese President Hu Jintao continues to block proposed UN sanctions against North Korea.
(Peter Wynn Thompson/AFP/Getty Images)
Beijing hastens to defend rogue Pyongyang once again.
 
China announced last Wednesday that it will refuse to allow publication of a UN Security Council report that accuses North Korea of violating nuclear sanctions.
On January 27, the Security Council’s panel of experts on North Korea submitted the report to the organization’s sanctions committee, which monitors Pyongyang’s compliance with the UN sanctions levied on it after it tested nuclear weapons in 2006 and 2009.
The report says that North Korea’s uranium enrichment program and its development of a light-water reactor are glaring violations of the UN sanctions. The document was based in part on information from U.S. nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who toured North Korea in November 2010 and viewed around 2,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges. The report says the Council is almost certain that North Korea has several more clandestine enrichment-related facilities.
“Many Council members are pushing for its publication on the grounds that it is important that all UN member states get access to the findings and recommendations to improve compliance,” said a diplomat who wished to remain anonymous.
China, which is one of the Security Council’s five veto-wielding permanent members, told organization representatives that it would block the report’s publication and delivery to the full Council. Beijing wishes for the report to contain as few details as possible about Hecker’s tour of North Korea and of the panel’s assessments, and is the only member opposed to publishing the report.
This is not the first time China has vetoed a Council decision as it becomes bolder in protecting nations like North Korea, which it counts as an ally.
In August of 2009, Trumpet columnist Brad Macdonald wrote of China’s worrisome support of rogue North Korea:
Evidence suggests that the club of rogue nuclear aspirants is a close-knit group. China clearly supports North Korea’s nuclear program. Strong evidence links the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs. North Korea’s fingerprints were all over the nuclear facility in Syria bombed by Israel in September 2007. China itself, violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it signed in 1992, helped develop Pakistan’s nukes; by refusing to support America and Europe in combating Iran’s nuclear ambitions, it has proven itself a supporter of Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic nuclear designs.

We live in an age of nuclear proliferation among rogue terrorist-sponsoring states—and China is supporting and defending the nation in this group with the most advanced rogue nuclear program!

Why isn’t China concerned about Pyongyang’s nukes finding their way into the hands of terrorist organizations? Simple. It knows the nukes won’t explode in Beijing or Shanghai, but in New York City or Los Angeles!