Wikileaks, completely wrong on North Korea
Seoul (AsiaNews) – Wikileaks’ revelations could negatively affect long-standing China-North Korea relations. They show that Beijing might be willing to give up on its erstwhile ally and allow Korean reunification under Seoul. The disclosure comes at a time of renewed crisis following last week’s North Korean artillery barrage against a South Korean island.
However, “These revelations are meaningless,” a Korean source told AsiaNews. “In fact, they confirm the [Sino-North Korean] alliance because they show how deceitful China is with other governments. If a Chinese diplomat tells something to an American diplomat, you can be certain that he did not tell the truth. It is unthinkable for Beijing to have South Korea-based US soldiers on its borders.”
Undoubtedly though, relations between Beijing and Pyongyang are at a low point. Deemed North Korea’s only ally, China did not formally condemn last week’s attack; instead, it called for emergency six-nation talks in Beijing with the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan.
Behind the scenes however, the Chinese are not going to risk losing their influence in North Korea, whose rulers appear less and less willing to cooperate.
To calm the situation, China has summoned a top North Korean official to Beijing. Choe Thae-Bok, chairman of North Korea's so-called Supreme People's Assembly and a close confidant of leader Kim Jong-il, arrived today in the Chinese capital on five-day visit. After he landed, he did not make any public statements. According to China’s Xinhua news agency, Choe came on the invitation of Wu Bangguo, a Chinese Communist Party official, and would be staying until 4 December.
In the meantime, Washington and Seoul have been putting pressure on China to restrain the North.
“This shows that if Beijing was really serious about cutting North Korea loose, it would not waste its time summoning its officials,” the source told AsiaNews. “It would go directly to the top, to Kim Jong-il. Of course, they are concerned about an overreaction, but they are certainly not ready to see a reunified Korean Peninsula under Seoul’s control, as claimed by Wikileaks.”
For its part, North Korea has decided to up the ante. One of its official newspapers, the Rodong Sinmun, reported today that the government “had thousands of centrifuges at a uranium enrichment plant used for peaceful purposes. At this moment, we are building a new light water reactor [. . .] and are using a modern uranium enrichment system with thousands of centrifuges.”
On 12 November, US scientist Siegfried Hecker visited a nuclear site in Yongbyon, which was recently reactivated after the United Nations imposed sanctions last year. The US nuclear experts said he was “stunned” by how technologically advanced the plant was.
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