Chinese Duplicity and American Delusion

China won’t confirm sanctions on North Korea, as US claims
By Associated Press

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is headed toward the Korean Peninsula for an exercise with South Korea.

BEIJING — China’s foreign ministry on Friday refused to confirm or deny U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s assertion that Beijing has threatened to impose unilateral sanctions on North Korea if it conducts further nuclear tests.
Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated China’s support for U.N. sanctions on the North but repeatedly avoided giving a direct answer when asked at a daily press briefing about what other plans China might be considering.
“As for what kind of actions China will take if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, it is a hypothetical question and there is much speculation about that, so I have no comment on it,” Geng said.
“China firmly opposes any actions that violate the United Nations Security Council resolutions. This position is quite clear,” he said.
China wants North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program, but has opposed unilateral sanctions imposed without a U.N. mandate.
Beijing has come under growing U.S. pressure to use its leverage as North Korea’s largest trading partner and main source of food and fuel aid to compel Pyongyang to heed U.N. resolutions.
Tillerson said Thursday that Washington knew China was in communication with the regime in Pyongyang.
“They confirmed to us that they had requested the regime conduct no further nuclear test,” he said on Fox News Channel.
Tillerson said China also told the U.S. that it had informed North Korea “that if they did conduct further nuclear tests, China would be taking sanctions actions on their own.”
Earlier Thursday, the senior U.S. Navy officer overseeing military operations in the Pacific said the crisis with North Korea is at the worst point he’s ever seen, but he declined to compare the situation to the Cuban missile crisis decades ago.

Chinese Duplicity

North Korean ship docks in Chinese port despite coal embargo
By Serenitie Wang, Tim Schwarz and James Griffiths

Beijing -- The docking of a North Korean ship at a port in northern China has raised questions over a Chinese ban on coal imports from the nuclear-armed state.
The Jin Hung 9 docked at a port in Tangshan city in northern Hebei province, near Beijing, on Thursday morning.
According to a daily docking plan published on Jintang port's website, the North Korean ship was loaded with anthracite coal. 

The website listed a nearly six-hour unloading time for the ship.
What the Jin Hung 9 unloaded is not clear.
Speaking Friday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang said the country's policy of not accepting coal imports from North Korea had not changed.
At least four other North Korean ships were listed as having docked at the port, but it is unclear what their cargo was.

Coal ban
China said in February it was halting all coal imports from North Korea for 2017 in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution passed last year.
"Imports of coal produced in North Korea -- including shipments already declared to the customs but yet to be released -- will be suspended for the remainder of this year," China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
Coal is North Korea's main export and an important source of foreign currencies for its fragile economy. 

Most of North Korea's exported coal is shipped to China, its only major ally on the global stage.
The link between Beijing and Pyongyang has been frayed by North Korea's repeated missile tests, and increased pressure from Washington on China to act to prevent further nuclear tests by Pyongyang.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests since the early 2000s.
On Thursday, a day after North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister said Pyongyang would test missiles weekly and use nuclear weapons if threatened, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu said Beijing was "gravely concerned" about North Korea's recent nuclear and missile activities.
Tensions have been on a knife edge on the peninsula amid tit-for-tat saber rattling from Pyongyang and Washington and a major military parade in North Korea, during which several potential new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were unveiled, and a failed missile launch.
During a recent visit to Japan, US Vice President Mike Pence called North Korea the "most dangerous and urgent threat" to the region and vowed any North Korean attack on US forces or their allies would be met with "overwhelming" force.
According to US defense official, Chinese air force land-attack, cruise-missile-capable bombers were put on "high alert" earlier this week as part of what is believed to be a Chinese effort to "reduce the time to react to a North Korea contingency."
The official said the US also has seen an extraordinary number of Chinese military aircraft being brought up to full readiness through intensified maintenance.
On Friday, South Korea said it was closely watching North Korea in days ahead because it could "carry out a provocation at any time" around the April 25 anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army.