Posted on 06/21/2006 10:59:58 AM PDT by callmejoe
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060621/kyodo/d8icjovo0.html
Wednesday June 21, 8:32 PM
Chinese, N. Korean military confirm ties amid missile question
(Kyodo) _ Chinese and North Korean military officials agreed Wednesday to boost bilateral cooperation, China's state-run media reported in a dispatch that gave no hint as to whether a possible test-firing of a missile by North Korea was mentioned in their Beijing talks.
The talks were held in the Chinese capital between a visiting North Korean delegation headed by Ri Yong Hwan, an army commander of the Korean People's Army, and Liang Guanglie, chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Liang was quoted by Xinhua as saying that China will work with North Korea to expand cooperation between the two armed forces and the two nations.
Ri said the North hopes to "learn from China's successful experience in building the country and the army," Xinhua reported.
Launch preparations for the Taepodong-2 missile have been observed in North Korea in recent days, prompting warnings from Japan and the United States that Pyongyang refrain from going ahead with any missile test plans.
No mention was made in the Xinhua report of the missile question.
If launched, it would be the North's first launch of a medium- or long-range missile since 1998, when it fired the Taepodong-1 missile, part of which flew over Japan into the Pacific.
Pyongyang maintains the 1998 launch was a multistage rocket to send a satellite into orbit.
Even if we assume the best, and China is merely using its leverage to calm the situation down, China and Japan have deepened their enmity in recent years. China may or may not want to get involved in a military confrontation with the United States at the moment, but they have fewer reservations when it comes to Japan.
Any outbreak of hostilities between the U.S. and North Korea will likely involve North Korea targeting U.S. bases in Japan with SCUDs (possibly carrying WMD). Japan would be forced to defend itself and would respond. If China had not crossed the Yalu by then, it would be compelled if Japan were then to "attack" its ally, North Korea (no matter that it would be self-defense on the part of Japan). Then, at that point, we would be at war with China. (And it would be much different than 1950).
This is not about grand schemes or conspiracies. This is about "accidents". Think World War I.
Japan needs nukes, now.
The have nukes...us...
So this is further confirmation that Boeing and Hughes technology is on-board North Korea's missiles. They're not in prison because Bubba Klinton let them fly under the radar and cover their asses. That whole bunch should be in jail.
And they're classified as a "six week" nuclear power.
More like six days, if they were hard pressed.
And honestly, if we have to go to war against China, now is better than later, before they get all their modern systems on line - and especially before they get their planned ADIZ up around the Three Gorges Dam.
Could someone more savvy than I give a picture of what a war with China would be like? I've heard both sides, the louder of which saying that it would be really, really bad - mainly because of their population.
bttt
Agreed. I wish they would become more directly involved. Taking responsibility is the whole point behind the multi-national talks, I believe.
"China would be "compelled" only if it were in their own best interests. If Little Kim lost it completely and attacked Japan, China itself would offer to take over NK to cauterize the wound."
Sometimes nations are drawn into war against their own interests. Nations do not always act in their best interests. Accidents happen. Anti-Japanese sentiment is surging in China. In Recent years there have been "spontaneous" student protests against Japan that became violent. Japan also comes into play with Taiwan. It was under their occupation from 1895 to 1945. That is very relevant from the Chinese viewpoint and only accentuates the anger.
I'm not basing my concern over an "accident" on a piece of paper (the mutual defense treaty from the 1960s I believe). I'm basing my concerns on the realities on the ground. War is politics conducted by other means. And it is not wise to make predictions based purely on the balance of military forces. You have to game out the political dynamics as well.
China is best positioned to exert pressure on North Korea. And it is not in their interest to see Japan go nuclear and fully militarize. Again, this is not about intentions. This is about accidents. Japan acting militarily in proximity to China, even in self-defense, could send the Chinese people into a jingoistic frenzy. The leadership might understand how self-destructive a war with Japan would become and how it might escalate. But they fear their own people more than anyone else.
ping
Thanks for the "Ping", Joe.....for this one and the others.
Always interesting, informative, insightful...............and a bit scary.
Agreed.
And it is not in their interest to see Japan go nuclear and fully militarize.
Then China is playing a dangerous game because one consequence of the NK's getting nukes is the withdrawal of US Forces from SK & Okinawa (to get them out of IRBM range). This makes the Japanese nervous. They could be very quietly building a nuclear deterrent right now.
The powers of the North are merging...
Seriously, Japan is a freaking island that is tightly packed. If the nukes of Hiroshima could kill hundreds of thousand. Imagine the Nukes of Tokyo that are much more powerfuer than the Nukes of Hiroshima. It raze that country flat making it look like it was some sort of deserted island all along.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200410/200410190017.html
China's Alleged Plot to Annex North Korea
If the North Korean system collapses or a coup d'etat takes place in the North, South Korea will naturally fill the gap. This is an illusion. An opening of room for unification won't necessarily mean a unification of the two Koreas.
Though it has not been played up in the media in the absence of confirming its authenticity, an article appearing in the Internet recently stirred up ripples. Written by an anonymous person, the story is said to have rearranged a lecture given by a professor of politics at Beijing University, which plays the role of academic adviser to the Chinese government. Its gist is as follows.
"The North Korean regime cannot survive more than 10 years. If a pro-Chinese military faction grasps power following a collapse of the regime, China intends to incorporate North Korea into its military federation and eventually make it a subordinate state. The Northeast Asia Project now in progress is aimed at accumulating a historical basis for it...¡°
The article appears to have shocked netizens. Each portal site has recorded it as a mostly-read story and attracted hundreds of comments. A concern that China or any other neighboring power will keep an eye on North Korean territory when the Korean Peninsula is about to be unified or when the North Korean regime collapses is common sense to those who have studied international politics or law.
"China intends to assert preemptive rights to the North Korean region following a collapse of North Korea." "China schemes to assert vested interests in North Korean territory." A few scholars have long made these contentions, Professor Song Ki-ho of Seoul National University among them. Furthermore, those concerned about Japan's right-wing views of history make this contention: "If Korea-Japan relationship deteriorates or South Korea's strength weakens, Japan may come up with a claim that Japan has preemptive rights to a southern portion of the Korean peninsula."
Our constitution prescribes North Korean territory as that of the Republic of Korea. In the international community, however, this is nothing but wishful thinking of ours. If one trusts that China, Japan, Russia and the United States, when circumstances develop in favor of a reunification of the two Koreas, would stand by seeing the two Koreas unified, he or she is naive indeed. Legally, China can dispatch its troops to North Korea if and when the South advances into North Korean territory, making use of the automatic intervention clause of the North Korea-China Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance Treaty. North Korea is a territory that China, Japan, the U.S. and Russia are reluctant to just leave alone.
National security calls for preparedness against even a 1 percent possibility. The possibility of such a development far exceeds one percent. We might encounter little problems if we are strong enough to exclude the four superpowers. Under the current circumstances in which the political leadership pledges "independent defense in words only," that wouldn't be easy to achieve in a decade. If so, we must make a certain country with solid capabilities a friend of ours and make use of it. Among the four superpowers surrounding the Korean peninsula, it is only the United States that has such strength and with which we have had friendly relations.
Until a few years ago, we expected that the U.S. would stand on our side under such a situation. Many harbor doubts about it today, though. Even some scholars assigned to public agencies are concerned, saying, "Even for the sake of restraining China, we have to strengthen our alliance with the United States." An official involved in the six-country talks observed, "With Seoul moving further from the United States, other participants do not seem to pay attention to statements South Korea makes like they used to."
The strong United States, which shares with us values like the market economy and democracy, and has gotten along well with historically with few territorial ambitions on the Korean Peninsula, is a useful tool in blocking Chinese greed and preparing for unification. Those who condemn the good use of such a nation as "idolization" are the real anti-Korean, anti-unification forces.
http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20040914/320000000020040914102158E5.html
2004/09/14 10:20 KST
'Koguryo Was Sovereign State': North Korean Media
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea again indirectly criticized China on Tuesday for its claims over the domination of Koguryo, saying it was an independent ancient kingdom of Korea.
"Koguryo had firmly preserved its national independence in its external relations and shattered any attempt to violate that independence," the (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) said.
"Koguryo was a stately sovereign state, not an ethnic minority or provincial government or a tributary of any state power," it said, without mentioning China or details of the recent history dispute between China and South Korea.
Koguryo was a kingdom that stretched from the upper Korean
Peninsula into what is today Manchuria in China between 37 B.C.and 668 A.D.
Koreans have no doubt that the kingdom is part of their
history, but some Chinese scholars have recently laid claim to the
kingdoms, arguing that it was a regional kingdom subject to
China. The Chinese government supported that view after rejecting
South Korean protests.
This was the latest in a series of North Korean news media
reports on Koguryo and its successor Balhae. The North recently increased the volume of such reports in an apparent protest against what it sees as China's attempt to distort early Korean history. However, it refrained from directly criticizing its staunch ally.
Among the reasons for contradicting China's claims, KCBS cited the Great Wall of China built during the Qing Dynasty (221 B.C-206 B.C). "This proves that Koguryo was an independent country that had posed a grave threat to China from the beginning," it claimed.
Ancient documents show that Koguryo was ruled by kings who called themselves "emperor," had an independent year name and self-reliant foreign policies, the North said.
On Saturday, historians of the two Koreas held a joint photo exhibition of Koguryo tomb murals at Mount Geumgang on the North's eastern coast to mark the registration of Koguryo relics as a UNESCO World Heritage in July.
They issued a joint statement in which they agreed to deepen research into Koguryo history and introduce it to the world, the (North) Korean Central News Agency reported.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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