Posted on 10/19/2007 1:21:48 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
China halts rail freight to N Korea
By Anna Fifield in Seoul and Richard McGregor in Beijing
Published: October 18 2007 23:06 | Last updated: October 18 2007 23:06
China suspended key rail freight services into North Korea last week after 1,800 wagons carrying food aid and tradeable goods crossed into Kim Jong-il’s hermit state but were never returned.
Absconding with Chinese wagons would be a strange move for North Korea because Beijing is Pyongyang’s closest political ally and biggest provider of food, goods and oil. Analysts monitoring North Korea said Chinese officials had privately complained to them that the North Koreans were dismantling Chinese wagons and selling them back as scrap metal.
The Chinese railway ministry suspended a number of rail freight services into North Korea on October 11, humanitarian agencies operating in North Korea told the Financial Times. The ministry told international aid agencies that it would not send any more wagons into North Korea until Pyongyang returned the 1,800 Chinese wagons.
Tony Banbury, Asia director for the UN World Food Programme, said that the curtailed service had held up the delivery of 8,000 tonnes of maize and wheat already stockpiled in Dandong, a Chinese border town. “We now have significant amounts of food but we can’t deliver it,” Mr Banbury said.
Reliefweb, a United Nations website for aid agencies, reported that the delivery of food stocks into North Korea had been “critically affected by the cessation of movement of railway wagons from China”.
An official with China’s railway ministry said yesterday that it was not aware of any suspension of freight services into North Korea.
But Fu Xue, of the Dandong Tianda International Freight and Forwarding Company, said there had been delays in the return of wagons but that North Korea had asked for permission from China.
North Korea has frequently failed to pay for goods or to pay back debt. It has also long been accused of relying on currency counterfeiting and drug smuggling to stay afloat.
But purloining Chinese wagons would be a brazen move. China is already thought to be disillusioned by Pyongyang’s refusal to embrace economic reform. It was also angered by North Korea’s decision last year to conduct a nuclear test despite Beijing’s objections.
North Korea has a history of not returning vehicles. In 1998, the late Chung Ju-yung, founder of South Korea’s Hyundai Group, donated 1,001 cows to North Korea to make amends for stealing a cow as he escaped from the north as a boy.
Pyongyang said the cows should be transported on Hyundai trucks. The trucks were never seen again.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited
This is the new low even for N. Korea. The place may be getting out of control.
curtailed service had held up the delivery of 8,000 tonnes of maize and wheat already stockpiled in Dandong, a Chinese border town.
Well, on the bright side, even if you promise food aid to N. Koreans in return for no good behavior, it won't be delivered due to the problem of their own creation.
Ping!
They say never bite the hand that feeds...
But stealing the plate it’s served on then sell in back? LOL, what brass ones!
I really want to find out how something like this occurs. Something is really wrong, but I would like to know it is a local phenomenon or done with the blessing or acquiescence of top leadership.
The only solution: next time they’re desperate for relief aid in Nth. Korea, the Chinese should tell ‘em to come and get it. Or ask for a deposit on the trucks or railway stock, whatever is being used.
No good deed shall go unpunished. (Murphy) Letting someone get away with conduct like that only emboldens him for all the occasions that (may) follow.
1. An old article or;
2. The second time it’s happened in the last year.
This may have been going on since the last report, but the first report did not say N. Koreans are dismantling the wagons and sell them as scrap metals to Chinese.
Either this has been going on, but Chinese went public about it now, or it could be a new development.
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/korea/articles/20060705.aspx
If your article is a new one then the Chinese are more stupid than the Clintons.
Check FR search. I haven’t, but I remember there have been lots of reports of NK not returning engines and cars over the last five years.
N. Korea Holds onto Chinese Trains Bringing Aids(NK brazenly rips off China) ^
One wonders what NK can do with the trains? There's not much food to carry beyond the items crossing the border...
"Red" Wagons? Shoot, China probably cranks out 1,800 of them in 20 minutes!
Kim Jong: "But we already returned them, piece by piece.
This story sounds familar, I think the NorKo’s did this before. And if they’ve dismantled the railcars, how are they going to be able to return them?
I remember a thread about it.
This is NOT an unexpected move on part of the Chinese.
DPRK is a creation of Mao, and the Chinese are loathe to keep it going (even tho Mao has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity these days).
However, they don’t want chaos on their border — it would be bad for business. They are the ones who have forced DPRK to abandon nuclear weapons, etc.
DPRK is like the screwup teenage son to China, the son we all pray our son doesn’t become or ever hand around with.
I will go with this one.
Arr youll ragons are berong to us!
/chiapet mode off
He’s ronery
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