Almost unnoticed amidst the tidal wave of publicity around the events in Charlottesville, Virginia a fascinating report on the North Korean missile programme by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has gone by practically unnoticed.
The report’s conclusions differ sharply from those made public recently in the US, and which have been attributed to the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry is claiming that German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel is backing China’s proposal for a ‘double-freeze’ as a route out of the Korean crisis.
Four days ago, following China’s warning to the US that China would defend North Korea if the US attacked North Korea and sought to change its regime, and following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s follow-up call to US President Trump, in which Xi Jinping told Trump to back off, I said in article for The Duran that I thought Chinese diplomacy was likely to succeed and that the recent war of words between the US and North Korea would soon abate
The Chinese Foreign Ministry is claiming that German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel is backing China’s proposal for a ‘double-freeze’ as a route out of the Korean crisis.
In typical Chinese fashion, after the mailed fist comes the velvet glove.
Having warned the US via an editorial in Global Times yesterday that it will defend North Korea if the US invades North Korea and seeks to overthrow Kim Jong-un’s government, the Chinese government followed this up today with a telephone call to US President Trump by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Shortly after both the Chinese and the Russians expressed their growing exasperation at the war of words between Washington and Pyongyang – for which they are increasingly blaming Washington rather than Pyongyang – US President Trump and the Pentagon have cranked up the war of words further by making more threats against North Korea, some of which some are taking to mean that a US attack on North Korea is imminent
As China makes no effort to hide its growing exasperation with both Washington and Pyongyang, now is perhaps a good moment to discuss the complex relationship between China and North Korea.
If the Chinese or anyone else imagined that the sanctions resolution recently passed by the UN Security Council would calm tensions in the Korean Peninsula, they must by now be disabused of that illusion.
Though there have been no tests by North Korea since the UN Security Council vote – whether of ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons – the rhetoric instead of calming down has become heated. Moreover for once it is Washington rather than Pyongyang that has taken the initiative in the war of words.
On 31st July 2017 I wrote an article for The Duran in which I said that the US is overreacting to the North Korean ballistic missile tests
Here is what I wrote in that article
One of the difficulties in discussing North Korea is that knowledge of the so-called ‘hermit kingdom’ is so limited.
