Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

North Korea bans tourists from China

What is transpiring is extremely unusual going by the traditional friendship between China and North Korea.

China would prefer that North Korea give up its nuclear program for three reasons.

1) In reaction to Kim Jong-ll rattling his missiles Japan is abandoning passivity. An armed Japan is something with which China would rather not deal. China's support for North Korea has backfired. What would China prefer to see -- a Japan armed with nuclear weapons, or Japan's alliance with the United States strengthened by its participation in missile defense? In Beijing, neither option has much appeal. But in relation to Japan, China has been hoisted with its own petard.

That's because a sea change in Japan's security outlook is being wrought by China's quasi-ally, North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is rattling his missiles and bragging that he has nuclear weapons. Not surprisingly, Japan is rapidly abandoning its long-standing delusion that its security problems can be ignored, or left to others to resolve.#msg-3106234

2) North Korea would drag China willy-nilly into its conflict with the United States.

3) The Koguryo episode has been partially resolved. However, the Koguryo distortion remaining on China’s Internet homepage serves as a reminder that China looks to be scheming to claim North Korean territory. This would best be accomplished if North Korea is forced to give up its nuclear program.

During marathon talks that lasted into late Monday, visiting Chinese vice foreign minister Wu Dawei pledged that his government will not distort this bit of history in textbooks and that China will drop further attempts to lay claim to Koguryo, at the provincial or central government level.
Wu however, is said to have refused Seoul's demand that China's foreign ministry restore the deleted portion of Koguryo history on its Internet homepage featuring Korea's Three Kingdoms era. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200408/200408240010.html

China’s scheme to claim North Korean territory.
`China Aims to Expand Territory by Distorting History'

The professor reportedly said Kim Jong-il’s regime will be overthrown within 10 years by a coup led by army generals affiliated with China, and the rebels may depend on China’s military power to maintain order.http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5153195

-Am

North Korea bans tourists from China

ANGRY OVER ARTICLE

HONG KONG - A scathing article in China slamming North Korea for being an irresponsible and ungrateful troublemaker has led to Pyongyang barring Chinese tourists, Japanese and Hong Kong media have reported.

The article, published in the latest issue of the semi- official bi-monthly Strategy And Management, castigated North Korea, which has few friends, for not showing gratitude for China's support during times of trouble.

Researcher Wang Wen zhong from a Tianjin academy wrote: 'Often, North Korea would disregard friend- ship and show no sense of responsibility when dealing with international issues, and this would drag China willy-nilly into its conflict with the United States.'

According to Japan's Tokyo Shimbun, the article so enraged North Korea that it told China's Liaoning province, which lies across the border, that tourist traffic will be halted temporarily.

North Korea's tourism office cited 'domestic conditions' for such a move.

This is the first time North Korea has unilaterally put a stop to tourists from China since they were allowed to visit in the 1990s, said Hong Kong's The Sun Daily. The newspapers believed it was sparked by the impasse over nuclear talks with the North.

The offending article, which was a sharp contrast to China's stance, slammed the North's backward system and flawed international outlook.

Referring to its supreme leader, the writer said: 'Although North Korea is faced with natural disasters and his people live in wretched conditions, Kim Jong Il has embarked on massive political persecutions to safeguard his family's hereditary rule.'

The writer concluded that China was no longer obliged to back North Korea because at critical moments, Pyongyang had not bothered to support Beijing. 'We, in fact, must be vigilant against any plots which might land us in conflict with the US.'

According to South Korea's Chosun Daily, 'the article is extremely unusual going by the traditional friendship between China and North Korea'.

North Korea yesterday ruled out attending preparatory meetings for six-way talks coming up next month, citing hostile US policy.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman called Mr Bush 'a political imbecile' and 'a tyrant' worse than Adolf Hitler, the official KCNA news agency reported.


http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,268833,00.html