Posted on 12/08/2002 2:24:27 PM PST by TheGoodBoy
China involved in Pak-N Korea nuke deal: Experts
PTI[ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2002 08:24:25 PM ]
WASHINGTON: China played a key role in persuading North Korea to supply medium-range missiles for Pakistan in return for Pakistani nuclear weapons know-how, as also in providing key components for Pakistan's nuclear weapons and North Korea's missile programmes, according to two China experts.
China arranged medium range missiles for Pakistan, as the M-11 missiles it had supplied Pakistan would not reach the critical military facilities on India's east coast, said Edward Timperlake and William C Triplett, authors of Red Dragon Rising.
China wanted Pakistan to be able to strike critical Indian military facilities on east coast, but did not want to be caught transferring longer-range missiles to Pakistan.
Therefore, China brokered a deal, by which North Korea would provide Pakistan the medium range missiles capable of hitting India's east coast and in return Pakistan would provide North Korea the nuclear weapons know-how, the experts wrote in Washington Times on Sunday.
American-built C-130 transport aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force have been shuttling between Islamabad and Pyongyang trading nuclear enrichment technology and equipment for long-range missiles, refuelling at Chinese Air Force bases in Western China at least twice.
"We do not know if the C-130s have loaded additional cargo while they were on the ground in China," say Timperlake and Triplett, "but there was certainly an opportunity for Beijing to add some ring magnets on the Islamabad-to-Pyongyang leg and some critical missile gear on the return trip to Pakistan."
The team of Chinese officials who arranged these deals was headed by General Xiong Guangkai, China's Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, who is paying an official visit to Washington on Monday at the invitation of the Bush administration.
The invitation to General Xiong, say Timperlake and Triplett, "appears to be Beijing's price for a lower level of obstructionism at the UN on the Iraq question and his mission is to restart the US-China military-to-military talks."
It was General Xiong who had threatened to incinerate Los Angeles with nuclear weapons if the US attempted to help Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.
Timperlake and Triplett said evidence is now beginning to emerge pointing to the General as more of a principal, than an accessory in the nuclear weapons-for-balltic missile swap between Pakistan and North Korea.
"We believe General Xiong is either the People's Liberation Army broker for the North Korea-Pakistan swap or he sits on an as-yet-unidentified committee that brokers this trade. The evidence points in this direction."
In early August 1998, General Xiong was in North Korea for a visit. After a "decent interval" of about a month, North Korea electrified Japan by firing a multistage missile over the home islands. "This is the same missile or versions of it, is the subject of the trade with Pakistan," say the experts.
In the spring this year, General Xiong showed up in Islamabad to sign Joint Military Production and Joint Defence Agreements with Pakistan.
"General Xiong's appearance at both ends of the Pakistan-North Korean weapons of mass destruction pipeline is both significant and ominous," say the experts.
Given the distaste for the US-China defence meetings since the Clinton years, say Timperlake and Triplett, it is doubtful that the Pentagon would be hosting General Xiong and his team next week.
"They (Pentagon) were drafted on this one. In light of the nuclear threat against Los Angeles and the high likelihood that General Xiong is brokering weapons of mass destruction, it will be interesting to see who volunteers to have his or her picture taken with him," they wrote.
There probably would not be a North Korean long-range missile programme today without critical help from Chinese People's Liberation Army scientists, say Timperlake and Triplett.
In 1994, one stage of the new North Korean missile was found to be a copy of the Chinese CSS-2 missile, which was possible either by physical transfer of such a missile or with the help of engineers familiar with the programme.
Around the same time, Pakistan's gas centrifuge nuclear weapons programme also had a "made in China" look to it, the experts said.
The gas centrifuge nuclear enrichment process requires ring magnets for its operation, and China is the world's leader in samarium-cobalt ring magnets.
The Washington Times broke the story of Beijing's delivery of thousands of ring magnets to Pakistan in 1996, the same type Beijing sold to Saddam Hussein just before the Gulf War.
Swell!
We can't underestimate China's influence in the world. They have been very aggressive and since their aquiring of HongKong they have a keen sense of free enterprise. When I visited in '98 for the first time, I was in ahh with the infrastructure construction going on in Beijing.
That's exactly what we do. Haven't you ever heard of our Nuclear Posture Review?
And it is a good idea. It's called deterrence. What would you have us do? Send Jimmy Carter to ask them pretty please with sugar on top?
-The Atomic Genie- what we know about North Korea's Nuclear program--
-The India-Pakistani Conflict... some background information- --
Nuclear, Biological, & Chemical Warfare- Survival Skills, Pt. II
The bottom line is that we can all, all of us - thank bastard Bill Clinton - for accepting cash and money orders from John Huang, Johnny Chung and Charlie Trie in exchange for ALL of our nuclear secrets!
BS ... they'd have been hung as the treasonous bastards they were save for the fact it was the GOP who paved the way for diplomatic relations with Chicoms in the first place.
Like abortion, appeasement of the PRC is a GOP policy.
Thanks for the heads-up.
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