|
|
发表于 2017-5-4 02:54:56
|
显示全部楼层
China is applying pressure to N Korea......OIL cut off
N. Korea is really in trouble with China.
First time N. Korea named China instead of using neighboring country of its displeasure with China.
As China fights back with ban on export of oil to N. Korea if they do not tone down their nuclear program.
Once President Xi is mad and this will be the end of Fatso Kim.
--------------------------
The Global Times, a state-backed Chinese tabloid, recently suggested a sixth nuclear test by the North would merit China cutting oil shipments. Doing so would be devastating to North Korea’s economy.
China could also apply major pressure by curtailing access to its financial system. Kelly points to 2005 US sanctions against (paywall) Banco Delta Asia, a bank in Macau holding North Korean funds, as an example: “The North Koreans got really hyper-sensitive about that, and there was a lot of regime activity about that the intelligence community picked up.”
People walk past a branch of Banco Delta Asia in Macau ,China , Wednesday 14 March 2007. Chairman Stanley Au of Banco Delta Asia SARL , on Friday 16 March 2007, denied wrongdoing over frozen North Korean assets and said the bank has complied with Macau law. China on Thursday criticized a US decision to ban all transactions with the Macau bank linked to illicit North Korean funds.
It was linked to illicit North Korean funds. (EPA/Paul Hilton)
But, he adds, some of the Chinese elite might also be nervous about actions taken against Chinese banks. “You hear people saying, ‘Hit them [the North Korean elite] where it hurts: Go after their cash in Chinese banks.’ The problem is, a lot of people are worried that’s tied to Chinese-elite money itself, and then you’re chewing towards the middle, as it were.”
“There is I think resistance to sort of showing the books because of other activities those banks may be used for for other actors within the Chinese system,” adds Stares.
Out of Beijing’s control
These days, much of the North Korean economy is fueled by the black market. Though Chinese players are heavily involved, it isn’t necessarily under Beijing’s control.
“Even if Beijing went ‘all in’ on economic sanctions and embargoes, the Chinese Communist Party may find it difficult to curtail black-market smuggling activities between Chinese companies and the DPRK,” says Liedman.
“I think North Korea has developed a whole black-market economy that helps keep it going,” says Freeman. “Not necessarily feeding lots of people, but it keeps the government going, and it probably helps pay for the nuclear program.”
North Korea has economic relationships outside of China, of course. For instance the regime essentially rents out slave labor to other repressive governments. It’s also a weapons supplier, and it profits handsomely from the civil war in Syria, helping the military of president Bashar al-Assad with parts, artillery, and technical assistance. It’s a partner with Iran on various fronts, including, possibly, nuclear weapons development.
It also dabbles in cyber-theft and has its own illicit drugs industry.
History lessons
Footage from Al Iraqiya television shows masked executioners putting a noose around former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's neck moments before his hanging in Baghdad December 30, 2006. Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity at dawn on Saturday, a dramatic, violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a U.S. invasion four years ago.
Saddam Hussein’s history lesson for Kim Jong-un. (Reuters/Al Iraqiya)
Many take it for granted that there’s some amount of economic pressure China could apply that would make the Kim regime give up its nuclear weapons. But “this is a widespread assumption that probably has no basis in fact,” notes John Pike, a military analyst at Globalsecurity.org. “Kim Jong-un saw what happened to Saddam [Hussein] and [Muammar] Gaddafi, and he doesn’t want to wind up in a necktie party.”
“Nuclear weapons are also a key tool as part of its blackmail diplomacy,” notes Maxwell. “The threat of use, proliferation, as well as holding out the possibility of talks, provides the regime with leverage to use with the US and international community.”
The Kim regime “has no intention of negotiating away its nuclear-weapons program,” he adds, though it may be open to “limitation and reduction talks.”
Then again, the elites surrounding Kim might apply pressure if their status and way of life is threatened. As a North Korean official said (paywall) after the US hit Banco Delta Asia, “You finally found a way to hurt us.”
China, Pyongyang knows, could also bring the pain. |
|
楼主: babyme
