Alles omtrent Noord-Korea

Gestart door Cobra4, 16/02/2009 | 09:55 uur

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

ma 19 dec 2011, 05:46

Japan belegt spoedberaad wegens Noord-Korea TOKIO -  De regering van Japan is maandag voor spoedberaad bijeengekomen naar aanleiding van de dood van de leider van Noord-Korea. Enkele minuten na de bekendmaking door de officiële media van Noord-Korea annuleerde premier Yoshihiko Noda een toespraak. Hij haastte zich naar zijn bureau waar hij beraadslaagde met zijn belangrijkste ministers.

De premier heeft functionarissen direct opdracht gegeven meer informatie te verzamelen over Noord-Korea. Hij wil daarvoor samenwerken met de Verenigde Staten, China en Zuid-Korea en zo voorbereid zijn op allerlei mogelijke gebeurtenissen.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/11147942/__Japan_belegt_spoedberaad__.html?sn=buitenland

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

Witte Huis volgt situatie N-Korea
Toegevoegd: maandag 19 dec 2011, 05:37

President Obama is vanochtend op de hoogte gebracht van het overlijden van de Noord-Koreaanse leider Kim Jong-il. Dat heeft het Witte Huis bekendgemaakt.

De Verenigde Staten volgen de situatie op het Koreaanse schiereiland op de voet en er wordt overleg gevoerd met Zuid-Korea en Japan. De regeringen van die twee landen voeren momenteel spoedberaad.

De laatste jaren probeerden de VS en andere landen Noord-Korea ervan te overtuigen het kernwapenprogramma op te geven. Het zeslanden-overleg dat daartoe moest leiden werd meerdere keren opgeschort en weer opgestart.

Bron: NOS

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

Kim Jong-il (N-Korea) overleden

Toegevoegd: maandag 19 dec 2011, 04:11
Update: maandag 19 dec 2011, 05:44

De Noord-Koreaanse leider Kim Jong-il is op 69-jarige leeftijd overleden. Dat heeft de Noord-Koreaanse staats-tv vannacht rond 04.00 uur gemeld.

Kim Jong-il is zaterdag al overleden, waarschijnlijk aan een hartstilstand tijdens een treinreis. Hij had al langer problemen met zijn gezondheid.

De Noord-Koreaanse staatstelevisie heeft de bevolking opgeroepen zich achter de waarschijnlijke opvolger en zoon van Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, te scharen.

De dood van Kim Jong-il zorgt voor nervositeit in Zuid-Korea. Het leger is in een verhoogde staat van paraatheid en de beurs in Seoul fors daalde.

Bron: NOS

Lex

#94
Citaat van: AD op 13/11/2011 | 17:21 uur
Het gaat om artsen, verpleegsters en ingenieurs die naar Libië waren gestuurd om harde valuta voor het moederland te verdienen.
Daar sta je dan ..... voor eer en vaderland?  :sick:

onderofficier

Noord-Koreanen in vrij Libië hoeven van Kim Jong-il niet meer thuis te komen

Eenmaal terug in Noord-Korea zouden ze de rust wel eens kunnen verstoren met opruiende verhalen over volksopstanden, en daarom heeft Kim Jong-il, de grote leider van het land, besloten dat Noord-Koreanen die in Libië werkten, niet meer naar huis mogen komen.

Nieuws over de opstanden in de Arabische wereld heeft de bevolking van het gesloten land praktisch niet bereikt, en uit deze ban blijkt dat Kim Jong-il dat zo wil houden. Volgens Zuid-Koreaanse kranten, zou de leider zich er zorgen over maken, dat de Arabische lente zijn onderdanen ook op rare ideeën brengt.

Een kleine 200 Noord-Koreanen zijn nu gestrand in Libië, meldt de huffington post. Het gaat om artsen, verpleegsters en ingenieurs die naar Libië waren gestuurd om harde valuta voor het moederland te verdienen.

Paria
Kim Jong-il wordt over praktisch de hele wereld als een paria beschouwd, maar Kaddafi was bereid om deze internationale concensus te negeren.

Noord-Koreaanse beambten die zich in Tunesië en Egypte bevinden, hoeven volgens het Zuid-Koreaanse Yonhap News Agency ook niet meer naar huis te komen.

http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1013/Buitenland/article/detail/3031561/2011/11/13/Noord-Koreanen-in-vrij-Libie-hoeven-van-Kim-Jong-il-niet-meer-thuis-te-komen.dhtml
Tegenslag is de beste gelegenheid om te tonen dat je karakter hebt; vele tonen (helaas) aan dat ze weinig karakter hebben.

jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)

South Korea Warns of Another Nuclear Test by North
Friday, Oct. 7, 2011

A senior South Korean official on Friday warned that North Korea could conduct another nuclear trial blast or fire off another long-range missile if there is no progress in restarting the long-stalled six-nation negotiations on Pyongyang's atomic activities, the Yonhap News Agency reported (see GSN, Oct. 6).

"I think that North Korea could test-launch a long-range missile or conduct a third nuclear test if denuclearization talks with South Korea and the U.S. fail," deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo said during a security event in Seoul.

Pyongyang is likely to pursue "provocative actions" if it becomes clear it will not acquire financial aid from Seoul or Washington prior to 2012 presidential elections in South Korea and the United States, according to Kim.

He made no mention on data that would indicate that North Korea has begun readying for another underground nuclear blast. Kim said, though, that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Obama are to address "conventional and extended nuclear deterrence" when they meet next week in Washington.

Pyongyang conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The second test came shortly after the North's most recent long-range missile test and its abandonment of the six-party talks that include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The talks had made limited progress in the ultimate aim of achieving total North Korean denuclearization.

The Stalinist state now says it is ready to rejoin the talks as long as no conditions are placed on their resumption. Envoys from Seoul and Pyongyang have met twice since July. South Korean and U.S. diplomats also met in July in New York City, and reports suggest another round of talks could occur this month (Yonhap News Agency I, Oct. 7).

Another South Korean official on Friday reaffirmed the position held by Seoul and Washington that North Korea must take certain steps if it wants the full nuclear negotiations to begin again, Yonhap reported.

"The six-party talks will come back to life only if North Korea shows its sincerity by taking the required pre-steps, including a monitored shutdown of its uranium enrichment program," Chun Young-woo, senior secretary to President Lee for foreign affairs and national security, said at the security event.

"North Korea claims that the six-party talks should be resumed without preconditions," Chun said. "As a matter of principle, we have no intention to reward North Korea for its illegal nuclear activities."

He added: "North Korea should realize that there is no salvation in their nuclear capabilities. They have a better chance of finding salvation in denuclearization" (Kim/Lee, Yonhap News Agency II, Oct. 7).

Seoul's newly installed lead nuclear negotiator on Thursday conducted several hours of meetings with senior U.S. diplomatic officials in Washington, Yonhap reported.

"South Korea and the United States jointly assessed changes in situations so far and also had in-depth discussions on future steps," Lim Sung-nam told Yonhap after the talks.

The Obama administration's top official on the six-nation negotiations, Clifford Hart, did not offer his thoughts on Lim's visit.

The meetings at Foggy Bottom also included Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control Robert Einhorn (Lee Chi-dong, Yonhap News Agency III, Oct. 7).

Separately, the United States in 2007 identified indications that North Korea was skirting economic penalties by collecting funds from Iran and Syria through a Jordanian bank, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The U.N. Security Council and individual states have sanctioned the North repeatedly over its nuclear and other proliferation operations.

Pyongyang is believed to have supported construction of a suspected nuclear reactor plant in Syria that was destroyed in a 2007 Israeli airstrike (see GSN, Oct. 5). It is also suspected of delivering long-range missiles to Iran, the Journal reported (see GSN, July 22).

"We are concerned that Iran, Syria and D.P.R.K. (North Korea) proliferation entities are using the Arab Bank network to process what may be proliferation-related transactions," according to an August 2007 dispatch from the U.S. Embassy in Amman that was made public by the transparency organization WikiLeaks.

The documents is an example of Washington's behind-the-scenes measures to halt North Korean nuclear and weapons proliferation. Even as of September, Pyongyang was asserted to be working hard to deal armaments and breach sanctions through a web of illegitimate business entities.

"U.S. efforts have helped to spur isolate, but I think there is still a cat-and-mouse aspect to North Korean illicit financial activity," according to former White House counterterrorism official Juan Zarate (Thomas Catan, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 7).

http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20111007_2934.php

Nikehercules

Noord-Koreaan vlucht door mijnenveld

Een Noord-Koreaanse man is er  in geslaagd via een mijnenveld Zuid-Korea te bereiken. Hoe de man erin is geslaagd de grenswachten te passeren en het vier kilometer langer mijnenveld door te komen is nog een raadsel.

De man werd afgelopen dinsdag, een dag voor de verjaardag van Kim Jong-il, aan de Zuid-Koreaanse kant van de grens opgepakt. Daar werd duidelijk dat hij zonder kleerscheuren door het zwaar belegerde mijnenveld was gekomen. Zowel militairen als geheim agenten konden niet verklaren hoe hij daarin was geslaagd.

Jaarlijks doen duizenden Noord-Koreanen een poging naar het zuiden te vluchten. De meesten van hen proberen het land te verlaten door de grens met China over te steken. Omdat Chinese grenswachten de vluchtelingen zonder pardon terug sturen naar het noorden eindigen dergelijke vluchten regelmatig in een Noord-Koreaans werkkamp. Desondanks zijn meer dan 20.000 mensen uit het noorden erin geslaagd Zuid-Korea te bereiken.

Bron: De Aziatische Tijger

VandeWiel


VandeWiel

A starving North Korea is reportedly spending more than £100 million on new offices and villas for Kim Jong-un, the country's heir-apparent.

The construction spree, documented in satellite photographs and informant accounts assembled by South Korea's intelligence services, began as Kim Jong-un was named to succeed his ailing father, Kim Jong-il, last month.

No independent corroboration of the photographs was possible, but two North Korea experts told The Daily Telegraph that the material was credible. North Korea's ruling family has long been known to live in considerable luxury, unlike the vast majority of the population it rules over.
House 15 in Pyongyang's central district, where Kim Jong-un grew up, has been rebuilt from the foundations to standards of luxury deemed appropriate for his new role. The building earlier housed Kim Jong-un's mother, Ko Young Hee, who is thought to have died of breast cancer in 2004.

House 16, next door, houses Kim Jong-il. Both houses are thought to be connected to offices through an underground tunnel.
Kim Jong-un, South Korean intelligence sources believe, is also the likely inhabitant of a new villa that has been built in North Hamgyong province, famous for its hot springs and spas. Local residents were alleged to have been press-ganged into work on a railway line and road that will ease access to the villa.

A massive new hall is coming up at Songdowon, along the sea in Gangwon province -- the site of a family resort complex that includes a dock for a yacht and a private railway station.

The structure of the hall, South Korean intelligence believes, suggests it includes an undersea viewing area similar to that at Seoho Villa, another family property in South Hamkyung province. That is reputed to include a three-level undersea gallery that allows visitors to view aquatic life 100 metres below sea level.

South Korean intelligence says the Kim family's assets include at least 33 villas scattered across North Korea's countryside. It is alleged that 28 of these are connected by railway stations maintained exclusively for the ruling family's use.

In November, the World Food Programme provided a grim assessment of mass poverty in North Korea, saying public food rations provided to 68 per cent of the country's population met less than half their needs. The WFP said that a third of all children were chronically malnourished, as were a quarter of pregnant women and breast-feeding women.

The WFP said that North Korea would have to import 867,000 tons of cereals, but planned to buy just 325,000 tons. Even if 305,000 tons of promised food assistance made its way to the intended beneficiaries, the WFP data showed, North Korea's citizens would still be left short of 237,000 tons.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8233874/North-Koreas-heir-apparent-launches-luxury-villa-construction-spree.html

VandeWiel

Citaat van: VandeWiel op 14/12/2010 | 09:28 uurGeneral Hwang Eui-don's resignation came as South Korean intelligence officials warned that North Korea has been secretly enriching uranium at as many as four undisclosed locations, potentially giving it access to a new source of fissile material for nuclear weapons.

The enrichment plants are in addition to a similar facility at the regime's main nuclear facility in Yongbyon, revealed last month following a visit by the US scientist Siegfried Hecker.

Oeps.

Gelukkig hebben we in Nederland besloten dat de wereld vredelievend is.

The Guardian heeft nog een ander goed bericht over de reactie van Japan op de veranderingen bij China en Noord Korea.

VandeWiel

General Hwang Eui-don's resignation follows that of defence minister in the wake of attack on Yeonpyeong island


The chief of the South Korean army resigned today, two weeks after the defence minister was replaced amid sharp criticism of the country's response to North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong island.

General Hwang Eui-don's resignation came as South Korean intelligence officials warned that North Korea has been secretly enriching uranium at as many as four undisclosed locations, potentially giving it access to a new source of fissile material for nuclear weapons.

The enrichment plants are in addition to a similar facility at the regime's main nuclear facility in Yongbyon, revealed last month following a visit by the US scientist Siegfried Hecker.

North Korean officials claimed that the Yongbyon plant had more than 1,000 working centrifuges, but insisted they were intended for power generation and not for the production of weapons-grade uranium.

"The business of peacefully developing nuclear energy and using it is happening in our country, in line with the international trend," the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of North Korea's ruling party, said today. "Peaceful nuclear activity is a sovereign right of all nations."

Hwang is said to have resigned over his involvement in a property investment deal, but his departure will be seen as a further blow to the country's military so soon after the Yeonpyeong attack, which killed two soldiers and two civilians.

Kim Tae-young resigned as defence minister to take responsibility for what many South Koreans believed was a weak response to the 23 November attack, the first targeting civilians since the 1950-53 Korean war.

The South fired artillery rounds in response but did not order air strikes. It has since vowed to retaliate with much greater force to any further provocations by Pyongyang.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Hwang, who only took up the post in June, was under pressure over profits from the property deal.

"General Hwang offered to retire following media reports about his property investment, because he judged it was inappropriate for him to stay in the post at a time when he has to lead reform of the army," Yonhap quoted a defence ministry official as saying.

His resignation comes on the eve of South Korea's biggest civil defence drill for years. Fighter jets will fly around the country and people will run to thousands of underground shelters as part of a simulation of a North Korean air attack.

News that the North's uranium enrichment programme may be more widespread than previously thought could add to fears that the regime is seeking to augment its plutonium stockpile.

"The uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon that the North disclosed to US scientist Siegfried Hecker is not among the three or four South Korea and the US have established to be in existence," the intelligence official was quoted as saying in the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

"We have established that the uranium enrichment tests that the North has been conducting for some time are at separate locations."

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, yesterday voiced "deep concern" about the uranium enrichment programme in a meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui-chun.

Lavrov urged Pyongyang to comply with UN security council resolutions banning uranium enrichment and called for a quick resumption of six-party talks on its nuclear programme. Aside from Russia and the two Koreas, the stalled talks involve the US, China and Japan.

The failure to resume multiparty negotiations sparked a new regional diplomatic push that will continue in the coming days.

South Korea's nuclear envoy was due to meet his Russian counterpart to discuss the shelling and uranium enrichment, while the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, will begin a four-day, private visit to North Korea on Thursday.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/14/south-korea-army-chief-quits

Elzenga

#86
Ik vind dit buitengewoon interessante informatie...geeft goed weer hoe complex de situatie is. Ik ben erg benieuwd wat deze onthullingen voor effect zullen hebben. De Chinezen zullen er absoluut niet blij mee zijn denk ik. En wat zal Noord-Korea doen in reactie?!

Eerste officiele reactie van China...

"Beijing called on the US to "properly handle" the emergence of the diplomatic cables, but sought to play down the issue in its first response to the release.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular press briefing: "We do not want to see any disturbance in China-US relations."

But he declined to comment on any of the issues raised in the documents. Asked whether Beijing believed that North Korea had behaved "like a spoilt child" – as a senior official remarked, according to one of the cables - Hong replied: "China takes note of the leaked reports. We hope the US side will properly handle the relevant issues. As for the content of the documents, we do not comment on that."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/nov/30/wikileaks-us-embassy-cables-live-updates?intcmp=239


Elzenga

WikiLeaks cables: How China lost patience with North Korea

Chinese are willing to accept Korean reunification, secret cables show – but they want the US to take the lead

    * Simon Tisdall
    * guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 November 2010 21.40 GMT
    * Article history

An honour guard at a ceremony for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Beijing An honour guard at a Beijing ceremony for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. US embassy cables reveal the lack of a clearly agreed US-China policy on Pyongyang. Photograph: Alfred Cheng Jin/Reuters

China's willingness to accept Korean reunification, revealed in private conversations between senior Communist party officials and US and South Korean diplomats, reflects Beijing's deep, previously concealed exasperation with its wayward ally North Korea.

But the leaked US diplomatic cables suggest there is no consensus on how to proceed towards this goal, with Beijing and Washington looking to each other to take the lead.

China's reluctance to confront its ally was highlighted last week after the North launched a one-hour artillery bombardment of a South Korean island, plunging the peninsula into one of its worst crises since the Korean war. The White House swiftly deplored what it called an "outrageous" act and pledged military solidarity with South Korea. But Beijing declined to condemn Pyongyang, instead calling for calm and a resumption of talks on the North's nuclear programme.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, was among several American officials who subsequently demanded China take a stand. US pressure seems to have yielded limited results, with Beijing today inviting a North Korean official for talks in an apparent mediation effort. A senior Chinese diplomat has also travelled to Seoul as part of what China is calling "emergency consultations".

It was reported last night that US, Japanese and South Korean officials will meet in Washington on 6 December to discuss the crisis with North Korea.

But China's immediate Korea priorities continue unchanged: maintaining stability, a benign economic environment, and if possible, a peaceful dialogue. Notwithstanding its openness in the longer term to the idea of reconciliation and reunification, Beijing remains unwilling to do anything that could force the North Korea into a corner and increase the possibility that it might lash out unpredictably.

A December 2009 meeting with US officials in Beijing shows the Chinese side sticking firmly to this gameplan, placing the ball firmly in America's court after a year in which North Korea deliberately stoked international tensions over its nuclear and missile programmes.

William Burns, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, was told by Wang Jiarui, director of international liaison for the Communist party's central committee, that North Korea "needed a breakthrough in its relations with the United States ... because of its domestic situation and the current international environment.

"Wang reiterated China's longstanding position that the key objective at this stage was to prevent the situation on the Korean peninsula from spinning out of control and to establish a positive direction through dialogue and negotiation." Wang continued: "It was not in US interests to prolong the current state of hostility [and the US should demonstrate] it had no intention of promoting regime change ... This was contingent upon a change in North Korean behaviour and an eventual North Korean pledge to the world that it would not embark on the road to nuclear weapons."

Beijing's assessment as reported in the cables was echoed by a South Korean official involved in talks with North Korea. He told diplomats in Seoul that Pyongyang wanted Washington to guarantee its sovereignty and territorial integrity, preferably through a peace treaty, and firmly believed Washington alone could do this. "The DPRK craved a dialogue with the US, aiming for a 'big deal', but first needed to raise tensions to create the need for dialogue," the official said. Colonel Lee Sang-chul, North Korea policy division director at Seoul's ministry of national defence, said he believed the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, had suffered "physical and psychological trauma" as a result of his reported stroke in 2008 and had become obsessed with creating political stability to allow an orderly succession.

In another meeting between James Steinberg, US deputy secretary of state, and Chinese officials in 2009, high-ranking state councillor Dai Bingguo reported "frank and blunt" discussions with North Korea about the need to return to the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programme. North Korea's vice-foreign minister, Kang Sok-ju, and others told their Chinese visitor they wanted dialogue with Washington first.

Dai indicated that China supported bilateral discussions and advised there was "no limit to how far you could go. Dai admitted ... his conversation with Kim [Jong-il] was not as direct and candid and joked that he 'did not dare' to be that candid with the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] leader". Dai said Kim "appeared to be in reasonably good health and still had 'a sharp mind'". There has been speculation about Kim's health and its impact on North Korea's stability since his alleged stroke in 2008.

Despite China's insistence that the US must show the way, the Americans appear convinced Beijing has more leverage than it admits – and are concerned the situation in North Korea could rapidly deteriorate.

In a confidential report of a meeting in February 2010 between the US assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell and the then South Korean national security adviser, Kim Sung-hwan, Kim – who is now foreign minister – is quoted as saying that Kim Jong-il would visit China "soon" in order to obtain desperately needed economic assistance. The prediction proved correct: Kim travelled to Beijing in May and again in August.

"The situation inside North Korea, he [Kim Sung-hwan] added, appeared increasingly unstable. The north's currency replacement had created strong resentment throughout DPRK society, Kim said ... Kim asserted there were credible reports of unrest in the north; according to ROK [Republic of Korea] intelligence sources DPRK police recently found a bomb on a passenger train en route from Pyongyang to Beijing."This assessment finds an echo in a meeting between senior US officials and South Korea's then foreign minister, Yu Myung-hwan, in January 2010.

"Yu asserted that ... KJI [Kim Jong-il] needed both Chinese economic aid and political support to stabilise an 'increasingly chaotic' situation at home. In particular FM Yu claimed that the north's botched currency reform had caused 'big problems' for the regime and that the power succession from KJI to Kim Jong-un was 'not going smoothly'. Moreover, Yu confided, an unspecified number of high-ranking North Korean officials working overseas had recently defected to the ROK. (Note: Yu emphasised that the defections have not been made public.)"

The problems caused by the lack of a clearly agreed US-China policy on how to deal with North Korea are exacerbated by tensions and rivalries between other countries involved in the six-party process. One leaked cable reports a stinging attack by a senior South Korean minister on Wu Dawei, China's vice-foreign minister, who was Beijing's lead negotiator in the talks. He suggested Wu was an old-school communist not up to the job [ID: 249870].

In an indication of international pessimism, the Russian ambassador at large to the six-party talks lamented to US diplomats in Moscow that "no one had good ideas on how to pull North Korea back from its brinkmanship".

Grigoriy Logvinov said his country's foreign minister (Sergey Lavrov) had just had a rough trip to North Korea because its leadership "was 'very angry' and told Lavrov categorically that it was resolved to restart its nuclear programme, would never participate in the six-party talks again and would not trust anything but nuclear deterrence as its security guarantee".

Logvinov urged patience, suggesting Pyongyang's hard line "was either a negotiating tactic or an indication that a power transition was near, but in any case did not represent the final word on the denuclearisation issue". He derided North Korea's rocket as "a piece of junk that miraculously flew".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/29/north-korea-china-us-buck?intcmp=239

Elzenga

Wikileaks cables reveal China 'ready to abandon North Korea'

Leaked dispatches show Beijing is frustrated with military actions of 'spoiled child' and increasingly favours reunified Korea

    * Simon Tisdall
    * guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 November 2010 21.30 GMT
    * Article history

China has signalled its readiness to accept Korean reunification and is privately distancing itself from the North Korean regime, according to leaked US embassy cables that reveal senior Beijing figures regard their official ally as a "spoiled child".

News of the Chinese shift comes at a crucial juncture after the North's artillery bombardment of a South Korean island last week that killed four people and led both sides to threaten war. China has refused to condemn the North Korean action. But today Beijing appeared to bow to US pressure to help bring about a diplomatic solution, calling for "emergency consultations" and inviting a senior North Korean official to Beijing.

China is sharply critical of US pressure tactics towards North Korea and wants a resumption of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks. But the Guardian can reveal Beijing's frustration with Pyongyang has grown since its missile and nuclear tests last year, worries about the economic impact of regional instability, and fears that the death of the dictator, Kim Jong-il, could spark a succession struggle.

China's moves to distance itself from Kim are revealed in the latest tranche of leaked US embassy cables published by the Guardian and four international newspapers. Tonight, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the US "deeply regrets" the release of the material by WikiLeaks. They were an "attack on the international community", she said. "It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems," she told reporters at the state department.

The leaked North Korea dispatches detail how:

• South Korea's vice-foreign minister said he was told by two named senior Chinese officials that they believed Korea should be reunified under Seoul's control, and that this view was gaining ground with the leadership in Beijing.

• China's vice-foreign minister told US officials that Pyongyang was behaving like a "spoiled child" to get Washington's attention in April 2009 by carrying out missile tests.

• A Chinese ambassador warned that North Korean nuclear activity was "a threat to the whole world's security".

• Chinese officials assessed that it could cope with an influx of 300,000 North Koreans in the event of serious instability, according to a representative of an international agency, but might need to use the military to seal the border.

In highly sensitive discussions in February this year, the-then South Korean vice-foreign minister, Chun Yung-woo, told a US ambassador, Kathleen Stephens, that younger generation Chinese Communist party leaders no longer regarded North Korea as a useful or reliable ally and would not risk renewed armed conflict on the peninsula, according to a secret cable to Washington.

Chun, who has since been appointed national security adviser to South Korea's president, said North Korea had already collapsed economically.

Political collapse would ensue once Kim Jong-il died, despite the dictator's efforts to obtain Chinese help and to secure the succession for his son, Kim Jong-un.

"Citing private conversations during previous sessions of the six-party talks , Chun claimed [the two high-level officials] believed Korea should be unified under ROK [South Korea] control," Stephens reported.

"The two officials, Chun said, were ready to 'face the new reality' that the DPRK [North Korea] now had little value to China as a buffer state – a view that, since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006, had reportedly gained traction among senior PRC [People's Republic of China] leaders. Chun argued that in the event of a North Korean collapse, China would clearly 'not welcome' any US military presence north of the DMZ [demilitarised zone]. Again citing his conversations with [the officials], Chun said the PRC would be comfortable with a reunified Korea controlled by Seoul and anchored to the US in a 'benign alliance' – as long as Korea was not hostile towards China. Tremendous trade and labour-export opportunities for Chinese companies, Chun said, would also help 'salve' PRC concerns about ... a reunified Korea.

"Chun dismissed the prospect of a possible PRC military intervention in the event of a DPRK collapse, noting that China's strategic economic interests now lie with the United States, Japan and South Korea – not North Korea."

Chun told Stephens China was unable to persuade Pyongyang to change its self-defeating policies – Beijing had "much less influence than most people believe" – and lacked the will to enforce its views.

A senior Chinese official, speaking off the record, also said China's influence with the North was frequently overestimated. But Chinese public opinion was increasingly critical of the North's behaviour, the official said, and that was reflected in changed government thinking.

Previously hidden tensions between Pyongyang and its only ally were also exposed by China's then vice-foreign minister in a meeting in April 2009 with a US embassy official after North Korea blasted a three-stage rocket over Japan into the Pacific. Pyongyang said its purpose was to send a satellite into orbit but the US, South Korea and Japan saw the launch as a test of long-range missile technology.

Discussing how to tackle the issue with the charge d'affaires at the Beijing embassy, He Yafei observed that "North Korea wanted to engage directly with the United States and was therefore acting like a 'spoiled child' in order to get the attention of the 'adult'. China encouraged the United States, 'after some time', to start to re-engage the DPRK," according to the diplomatic cable sent to Washington.

A second dispatch from September last year described He downplaying the Chinese premier's trip to Pyongyang, telling the US deputy secretary of state, James Steinberg: "We may not like them ... [but] they [the DPRK] are a neighbour."

He said the premier, Wen Jiabao, would push for denuclearisation and a return to the six-party talks. The official also complained that North Korea "often tried to play China off [against] the United States, refusing to convey information about US-DPRK bilateral conversations".

Further evidence of China's increasing dismay with Pyongyang comes in a cable in June 2009 from the US ambassador to Kazakhstan, Richard Hoagland. He reported that his Chinese counterpart, Cheng Guoping. was "genuinely concerned by North Korea's recent nuclear missile tests. 'We need to solve this problem. It is very troublesome,' he said, calling Korea's nuclear activity a 'threat to the whole world's security'."

Cheng said Beijing "hopes for peaceful reunification in the long term, but he expects the two countries to remain separate in the short term", Hoagland reported. China's objectives were "to ensure they [North Korean leaders] honour their commitments on non-proliferation, maintain stability, and 'don't drive [Kim Jong-il] mad'."

While some Chinese officials are reported to have dismissed suggestions that North Korea would implode after Kim's death, another cable offers evidence that Beijing has considered the risk of instability.

It quoted a representative from an international agency saying Chinese officials believed they could absorb 300,000 North Koreans without outside help. If they arrived "all at once" it might use the military to seal the border, create a holding area and meet humanitarian needs. It might also ask other countries for help.

The context of the discussions was not made explicit, although an influx of that scale would only be likely in the event of regime failure. The representative said he was not aware of any contingency planning to deal with large numbers of refugees.

A Seoul embassy cable from January 2009 said China's leader, Hu Jintao, deliberately ducked the issue when the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, raised it at a summit.

"We understand Lee asked Hu what China thought about the North Korean domestic political situation and whether Beijing had any contingency plans. This time, Hu apparently pretended not to hear Lee," it said. The cable does not indicate the source of the reports, although elsewhere it talks about contacts at the presidential "blue house" in South Korea.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/29/wikileaks-cables-china-reunified-korea

Enforcer

Zuid Korea krijgt een harde tegenvaller als ze herenigen met N-Korea. Dat is dan weer beter voor China, omdat Korea dan verzwakt, vooral economisch.

Anderzijds, als het noorden van Korea na een flink aantal jaren wat gaat lopen, dan heeft China nog een extra afzetmarkt in de achtertuin.