U.S. misreading China's stand on North Korea

[inanna]

BEIJING -- With North Korea on the brink of a possible nuclear test that would trigger a major international crisis, China is emerging as a key obstacle to Washington's strategy of applying pressure on the Pyongyang regime.

<snip>

Analysts say the U.S. administration is misreading the Chinese mood, failing to understand that Beijing is willing to accept a nuclear Korean peninsula and risk Washington's wrath over the conflict, rather than bow to U.S. pressure tactics against its ally.

<snip>

You Ji, a China scholar at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, says China is determined to preserve the North Korean regime as a way of maintaining its influence in the region, despite Washington's wishes.

"Just as the U.S. has used China to pressure North Korea, China may use North Korea against the Americans," he wrote in a recent analysis.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050517/KOREA17/TPInternational/Asia

[still_one]

1. frankly, what could the U.S. do if north korea tests?

when Clinton was President North Korea had NO nuclear weapons

when * took office, broke off talks with North Korea, estimates indicate they may have up to 6 nukes

Gee, maybe talking is cheaper...

[Wright Patman]

2. 6 nukes + no oil = no action

eom

[jody]

3. North Korea is only following Dubya's lead

In December 2001, President George W. Bush unilaterally withdrew from the 1970 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, the first rejection of an arms control treaty since the end of World War II.

Following Bush's lead, in January 2003 Chairman Kim Jong Il of North Korea's National Defense Commission unilaterally withdrew from the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, leaving North Korea free to develop nuclear weapons as a sovereign nation.

Today, Bush criticizes Iran, a NPT signatory, for supposedly violating NPT terms while ignoring simple facts like India, Israel and Pakistan have never signed the NPT, although they all have nuclear weapons.