China won't shut off oil to North Korea

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/11612010.htm

BEIJING - China declared flatly Tuesday that it won't reduce fuel supplies to North Korea to discourage that country from testing a nuclear weapon.

"We are not in favor of exerting pressure or imposing sanctions. We believe that such measures will not necessarily have an effect," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

North Korea receives most of its energy through a pipeline from China. Trade between the nations also is rising quickly, providing economic support to the isolated regime of Kim Jong Il.

Trade relations between China and North Korea - or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as it's known - shouldn't be linked to the nuclear issue, Liu said, and won't be affected by the "worrying developments" on the Korean Peninsula.

[Deja Q]

1. And I thought China would want to fight N Korea for us.

:shrug:

[Roland99]

2. Didn't shutting off oil to Japan eventually lead to WWII in the Pacific?

[maddezmom]

3. NYT- China Rules Out Using Sanctions on North Korea

BEIJING, May 10 - China on Tuesday ruled out applying economic or political sanctions to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, appearing to undercut a crucial element of the Bush administration's evolving North Korea strategy. The announcement comes just as American intelligence agencies are trying to determine whether North Korea is preparing for a nuclear test.


Echoing President Bush's public comments, the Chinese said in a briefing on Tuesday that they still hoped that talks with North Korea would succeed in disarming the country, even though it has boycotted those talks for 11 months.

Liu Jianchao, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday that China rejected suggestions that it should reduce oil or food shipments to North Korea, calling them part of its normal trade with its neighbor that should be separate from the nuclear problem. "The normal trade flow should not be linked up with the nuclear issue," he said. "We oppose trying to address the problem through strong-arm tactics."

Beijing's apparent unwillingness to go along with Mr. Bush's backup plan to squeeze North Korea takes away the crucial pressure point that Mr. Bush's aides have been counting on. It also suggests that the strategy of threatening to go to the United Nations Security Council - which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has begun to discuss - could fail.

~snip~
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/11/international/asia/11korea.html

[pie]

4. This made me chuckle:

"appearing to undercut a crucial element of the Bush administration's evolving North Korea strategy"

[Zenlitened]

5. "Evolving." So that's what they call...

... blindly, deperately flailing to invent some way to manage a situation after letting it all slip out of control.

Jesus fucking christ. Is there ANYTHING the Bushicons have touched that hasn't turned to shit?