US 'kept quiet over Chinese UN breach' of shipping missile
launch vehicle to North Korea
US 'kept quiet over
Chinese UN breach' on North Korea
13 Jun 2012
China shipped missile
launch vehicles to North Korea last year in breach of UN resolutions, but was
never rebuked because the US did not want to embarrass Beijing, a Japanese
paper reported on Wednesday.
The report, based on
Japanese government sources, is the most strident of recent claims that China
has been involved in helping to arm its wayward ally after earlier allegations
Beijing supplied technology.
Four giant trucks
capable of transporting and launching ballistic missiles were exported by a
Chinese firm last August, the leading Asahi Shimbun said.
The vehicles were
likely those on display at the huge military display in April marking the
centenary of the birth of the state's founder Kim Il Sung, the Asahi said.
The sale of weapons
systems to Pyongyang is banned
under UN Security Council resolutions aimed
at containing the hermit state's nuclear ambitions.
But at Washington's urging, Tokyo and Seoul have avoided
confronting Beijing in a bid
to keep North Korea's patron onside in the international effort to tamp down
tensions on the peninsula, the paper reported.
Japanese government
papers reveal four 16-wheel vehicles were transported aboard a
Cambodian-registered ship, which was tracked by spy satellites leaving Shanghai
on August 1 and arriving at Nampho in western North Korea three days later.
The vessel then moved
on to Osaka where the Japanese coastguard conducted an on-board inspection and
discovered documents detailing the export of the vehicles, issued by an agent
in Shanghai, the Asahi said.
A report was passed on
to the Japanese government's intelligence office, the Asahi said.
"China has
provided repeated assurances that it's complying fully with both Resolution
1718 as well as 1874. We're not presently aware of any UN probe into this
matter," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
"I think we take
them at their word," Toner said, adding that he was not aware of specific
conversations between the United States and China about the launcher.
China denies exporting North Korean missile launch vehicles
13 June 2012
Japanese media claim Chinese firm shipped vehicles to North
Korea in possible violation of UN sanctions
Such vehicles, called TELs – for transporter, erector, launcher
– became the focus of international attention when North Korea displayed what
looked like several of them during a military parade in its capital, Pyongyang,
in April.
In Beijing, Liu Weimin, a spokesman for China's foreign
ministry, said his country has not violated any restrictions.
"Chinese companies did not violate UN and Chinese
laws," he said, calling the reports inaccurate. He did not specifically
confirm or deny the vehicles were sold, but said China was opposed to
proliferation and was complying with UN laws and regulations
Immediately after the parade, private experts said the
vehicles probably came from China, citing similarities to Chinese design
patterns in the windscreen, the windscreen wiper configuration, the door and
handle, the grill, the front bumper lighting configurations, and the cabin
steps.
Despite the latest reports, experts say pinning a
sanctions-busting charge on Beijing would be difficult because it would be hard to prove that Beijing knowingly
approved the exports for military purposes.
With different modifications, the vehicle can also be used in
commercial fields. The Asahi report said China claims the vehicles were to
be used to carry lumber.
More North Korean refugees likely to eye Canada
By DANIEL PROUSSALIDIS, PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU , June 12, 2012
OTTAWA - Immigration authorities are preparing for
ever-increasing numbers of refugee claimants from North Korea.
The documents indicate that between 2007 and 2010 around
10,000 people escaped the communist dictatorship in the north to seek refuge in
the south.
"Canada accepted 83 North Korean refugees in 2011
-- double the number of the previous year," said officials in the
assessment.
Kurland says Canada accepts "most, if not all"
North Korean claimants from the south.
A Conservative bill now before the Senate could change that. Under the bill, the immigration minister could
designate countries with strong human rights records as "safe." If South Korea were declared "safe,"
North Koreans making refugee claims from there would be less likely to be
accepted in Canada.
Meanwhile, Canadian officials in Seoul have warned Ottawa to
be ready in case new hostilities erupt on the Korean peninsula. "Since over 20,000 Canadian citizens
reside in the Republic of Korea, the consular response in the event of a crisis
could significantly exceed those of other recent evacuations," says the
assessment. In the past six years Canada
has had to help citizens evacuate Libya, Egypt and Lebanon.
UN Overview of Needs and Assistance in DPRK report
