April 4, 2005

STEAL THEIR FACE:

China in race to save talks, and face (Hamish McDonald, April 5, 2005, The Age)

China's President Hu Jintao could visit North Korea soon in a last-ditch effort to avoid the collapse of nuclear disarmament talks that Beijing has hosted.

Since the nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of cheating on a previous nuclear freeze, China has hosted three rounds of six-nation talks to resolve the issue, the most recent last June.

Last month US officials indicated that if the North's abstention from the talks stretched for a year, it would move at the end of June to take the issue to the United Nations Security Council and seek sanctions.

This would be a humiliating development for the Chinese Government, which has invested considerable prestige in sponsoring a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between its prickly communist ally and the US.


Making it an opportune moment to point out that if China can't deal with a client it's not much use.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 4, 2005 6:13 PM
Comments

The PRC is simply going to have to start behaving like the hegemon it purports to be and bump off Little Kim, putting in one of the generals to end this rather silly standoff. Of all the pointless military exercises in the world, the DPRK situation is probably the most pointless. There is no reason, besides Kim's ego, for it to continue.

Posted by: bart at April 5, 2005 6:45 AM

Bart:

I suspect the Chinese believe that as long as Dear Moonbat is a thorn in the US side, he will continue to live and rule. They aren't likely to grant us any favors very soon unless we tighten the screws across the board.

Posted by: jim hamlen at April 5, 2005 10:33 AM

A UN Resolution or even a joint statement from the US, Japan and the ROK demanding action from the PRC concerning Little Kim wouldn't be a bad idea. If the PRC is perceived as blocking resolution of the nuke issue, then the PRC will suffer at the hands of Japanese, South Korean and American consumers, even if the governments don't intervene. And the PRC economy is tenuous enough that it cannot sustain the net result of ticking off its three biggest customers.

Posted by: bart at April 5, 2005 11:44 AM

"They aren't likely to grant us any favors very soon unless we tighten the screws across the board."

I think financing the Federal deficit is a favor.

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at April 5, 2005 11:48 AM
« EXPANDING THE AXIS OF GOOD: | Main | NOT EXACTLY RECENT: »