North Korea rocks Asia's status quo
A nuclear test in the North brought unanimous condemnation at the UN.
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"China doesn't have any cards to play any more," he adds. "Its policy towards North Korea is a failure."
Chinese state media, in contrast to the South Korea's media, downplayed test news.
North Korea depends on China for oil, food, and other essential supplies. "As close as lips and teeth," was the old Communist description of bilateral relations, though North Korea has always been the dependent junior partner. Since then, post-cold-war changes have left the North reluctant to embrace economic reforms that have brought prosperity to China.
Analysts say China is likely to edge closer to other members of the UN Security Council as it grapples with the test. In the past, China has clashed with the US over sanctions on North Korea, which China fears could destabilize its neighbor. Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have crossed the border with China in recent years, fleeing poverty and repression. But this provocation, and Beijing's failure to rein in its ally, may force a change of stance.
"This test will push the US, Japan, and China closer. China will have a difficult time blocking any Security Council resolution," said Yu Tiejun, a professor at Peking University.
"If the US, Japan, and other members of the Security Council are going to take tough measures on North Korea, probably in the early stages China will say something different and urge restraint, but finally China will agree to resolute action," says Jin Linbo, a researcher at the China Institute for International Studies, a government-funded think tank.
North Korea's claim that it conducted a nuclear test Sunday night raised political risks a notch higher for businesses in the region, and markets slid southward accordingly.
A UN Security Council resolution adopted in July imposed limited sanctions on North Korea and demanded that it suspend its ballistic missile program. US officials said Monday that one proposal now was to put pressure on countries to crack down on banks and businesses aiding the North's weapons programs and ensure close scrutiny of its cargo ships, said officials in Washington.
The US Treasury Department last year began a broad initiative to sever North Korean links to foreign banks because of its alleged counterfeiting and other financial crimes. Those banks hold accounts belonging to key members of North Korea's elite, which would include military commanders.
A July 9 story from The Sunday Times of London reported that "since the collapse of six-nation talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear weapons, the US and its allies have also tightened the screws on [Kim Jong Il's] clandestine fundraising, which generated some $500 million a year for the regime."
Also, the Times reported, a "covert" program to subvert missile traffic moving in and out of the country involves the interception of North Korean ships and high-level air and naval surveillance operations.
Sunday's nuclear test deepens concerns that Pyongyang could export its technology to Tehran. North Korea is widely known to have helped Iran develop its Shahab missile program, and European and other Western intelligence sources say North Korean technicians and nuclear experts have helped to train Iranian scientists.
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