The New York Times
North Korea’s Hydrogen Bomb Claim Strains Ties With China
BEIJING — For months, China’s leaders have worked to improve relations with North Korea, its loyal but unpredictable ally to the east. They dispatched a top official to the North for a military parade, rejected calls to isolate it with tough economic sanctions, and spoke glowingly of its leader.
But on Wednesday, Beijing’s hopes of keeping its neighbor in check appeared to diminish, as the North said it had completed a test of a hydrogen bomb about 50 miles from the Chinese border, the fourth nuclear weapon test in a decade.
Officials in Beijing were furious.
“China
strongly opposes this act,” Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Chinese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in unusually harsh remarks at a news
conference on Wednesday. “China will firmly push for denuclearization of
the Korean Peninsula.”
The
decision to detonate a bomb suggested a serious falling-out in the
relationship between North Korea and China. Chinese officials had agreed
last fall to send a senior official to the parade in the North Korean
capital, Pyongyang — the first such visit since Kim Jong-un, the current
leader, took power in 2011 — partly on the condition that the North
would refrain from nuclear tests, said Evans J. R. Revere, a former
senior State Department specialist on the North.
Now,
Chinese leaders are in a difficult position. They are under intense
pressure to inflict harsh economic punishments on North Korea, but they
worry that any resulting instability could seep back into their
territory. They also face new questions about China’s efforts, over the
past several months, to curry favor with Mr. Kim, whom many Chinese
regard as a bizarre, bumbling figure.
China
must also reckon with the prospect that actions by the North could
galvanize countries like the United States, Japan and South Korea into
strengthening military forces in the Pacific, just as China is seeking
to assert its dominance in the region.
“This
is precisely what China does not need,” said Rory Medcalf, head of the
National Security College at Australian National University. “If there
is one issue guaranteed to refocus U.S. strategic attention on Asia, it
is a North Korean nuclear provocation, especially one purported to bring
Pyongyang’s destructive capabilities to a whole new level.”
On
Wednesday, Chinese officials sidestepped questions about whether they
would level economic sanctions against North Korea, by paring shipments
of oil, for instance, or food. China is North Korea’s largest economic
ally, with trade between the two countries having totaled $6.4 billion
in 2014.........(continua)
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Un grande inizio d'anno, non c'e' che dire.
Non bastavano le decapitazioni saudite, la recrudescenza dei secolari odi tra shiiti e sunniti, il mondo mitragliato dagli episodi di terrorismo dei fondamentalisti islamici, i 30mila morti all'anno ammazzati negli States per armi da fuoco (ma cosa vuoi che siano?, dicono i repubblicani impegnati nel loro ridicolo show per le primarie del GOP).
Adesso ci si e' messo nuovamente di mezzo il dittatore della Corea del Nord. Il sisma pari a 5.1 della scala Mercalli registrato nel nord del paese proprio ai confini con la Cina non puo' essere preso sottogamba. Qui a Washington si e' sicuri che si tratta di un'esplosione nucleare anche se non si puo' ammettere ufficialmente.
E adesso che facciamo? (tutti quanti, a cominciare dalla Cina, Giappone, Corea del Sud e dall'America che puo' essere minacciata nella sua costa occidentale dalle follie dei nord coreani).
