The focus has come on China after reports emerged about North Korea all set to conduct its 7th nuclear test. China which has been maintaining friendly terms and conditions with North Korea for over 60 years, kept a close watch on its friendly country especially after South Korean spy agency reported that North Korea may conduct a 7th nuclear test.

But foreign affairs experts on China affairs have doubts over China’s intention to takeany stand against DPRK because of the past experience. According to them, China had voiced opposition to North Korea’s test of a new ballistic missile in February 2017 more than 24 hours after reports of the launch emerged. It shrugged off suggestions it should be doing more to intervene in the rogue state’s military affairs, pinning the test down to Pyongyang’s testy relations with Washington and Seoul. It rejected criticism that it could do more to steer the regime away from its goal of developing a nuclear weapon capable of striking the US mainland.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield has now accused China of protecting Pyongyang stating that China and Russia have “bent over backwards” to justify repeated violations of UN sanctions by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Greenfield further stated that North Korea’s “staggering 59 ballistic missile launches this year,” including 13 since October 27 and one that made an “unprecedented impact” about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from South Korea’s shore, are about more than advancing Pyongyang’s military capabilities and seek to raise tensions and stoke fear in its neighbours. China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun refuted the charge stating that the DPRK missile launches were directly linked to the re-launch of large-scale US-South Korean military exercises after a five-year break, with hundreds of warplanes involved. He also pointed to the US Defence Department’s 2022 Nuclear Posture Review which he said envisaged the DPRK’s use of nuclear weapons and claimed that ending the DPRK regime is one of the strategy’s main goals.

After North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006, the Security Council had imposed sanctions and tightened them over the years seeking to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and cut off funding. In May, however, China and Russia blocked the Security Council resolution that would have
toughened sanctions over the missile launches, in the first serious rift on the council over the sanctions against North Korea.

The United States and its allies had a clash with China and Russia, accusing them of preventing action by the United Nations Security Council against North Korea for its escalating ballistic missile launches. North Korea has conducted a record number of missile launches in recent past, including an apparent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), bringing the total number of missiles fired to more than 60 so far this year.

Ignoring North Korea’s conduct, China along with Russia, whose relations with the West have severely deteriorated over its invasion of Ukraine, told the UN meeting that the US was to blame for the ongoing tension with North Korea.

China has maintained cordial relations with North Korea for mover 60 years. It had signed a treaty of friendship Cooperation and Mutual Assistance with DPRK in 1951. The treaty aims to strengthen China-DPRK friendly cooperation and safeguard regional peace and stability. Guided by the spirit of the Treaty, China and North Korea have been supporting and collaborating closely with each other over the past 60 years. The Treaty “has not only given a strong boost to the causes of socialist construction of the two countries, but also made important contributions to the regional and global peace and stability,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang.

It may be noted here that when North Korea carried out its last nuclear test on September 3, 2017, China’s President Xi Jinping was busy preparing to host the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa at a summit meant to burnish his image as a global statesman ahead of a critical Chinese Communist Party (CCP) congress.

When Pyongyang had conducted sixth test it had triggered an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 that shook homes along the North Korea-China border and revived fears of nuclear contamination in the area. It had also shifted the slopes of the mountain where North Korea’s underground test sites were located by up to 3.5 metres (11.5 feet). Pyongyang had declared a “perfect success” of the test which involved a hydrogen bomb, capped months of accelerating weapons launches, including that of long-range missiles capable of hitting continental United States.

Analysts in US had condemned the atomic test and termed it as an “insult” to Beijing, which has long been North Korea’s chief ally and its primary trade partner, as well as a “diplomatic embarrassment” for Xi, who at the time was set to be confirmed for a second term as the Communist Party’s leader. There is a fear that North Korea may not listen to China on the nuclear test issue. However China would prefer to avoid embarrassing situation. Meanwhile, Chinese experts have blamed US South Korea for prevailing tension on the Korean Peninsula.

They said that the situation escalated to fresh heights recently when North Korea launched multiple missiles after a US-South Korea military drills kicked off. Chinese experts believe that the missile launches are in response to South Korean-US joint deterrence efforts, and that past experience has shown that increasing military deterrence against North Korea only provokes a tougher response from Pyongyang. Such statements are a testimony of the fact that China has been batting for North Korea with which it wants to maintain cordial and friendly relations under all circumstances.

L'articolo China defends North Korea for nuclear programme activity, Why? proviene da InsideOver.

Iran’s complaint over Israel’s recent missile test exposes how the West applies a double standard when it comes to Israel’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile.

According to the i24News report, Israel’s missile propulsion system, known as Jerricho ballistic missile system, has a range of 2,000 kilometers. The Jewish state developed such a weapon with the US assistance, which can be accompanied by a sizeable warhead.

Israel’s Ministry of Defense did not elaborate on the detail of the testing and the information on the location of the missile launch. However, Tehran assumed that the missile launched from the airbase in Pamachim, in the south of Tel Aviv, based on a video and a picture circulating on social media channels.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif denounced the missile testing, adding that such a provocative activity was aimed at destroying Iran.

“Israel today tested a nuke-missile, aimed at Iran. E3 & US never complain about the only nuclear arsenal in West Asia – armed with missiles DESIGNED to be capable of carrying nukes – but has fits of apoplexy over our conventional & defensive ones,” the Iranian diplomat tweeted.

Israel today tested a nuke-missile, aimed at Iran.

E3 & US never complain about the only nuclear arsenal in West Asia—armed with missiles actually DESIGNED to be capable of carrying nukes—but has fits of apoplexy over our conventional & defensive ones. https://t.co/r4EqXkhcCN

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) December 6, 2019

Germany, France, and the UK responded to Iran’s complain by sending a letter to the UN stating that Iran was “developing nuclear-capable missiles,” which is in breach of the UN Security Resolution on a nuclear deal.

The Security Council Resolution 2231 calls on Iran to refrain from undertaking “any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

Iran has been under criticism for reducing its commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or known as the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015 following Washington’s exit from the treaty. Last year, the U.S. withdrew from the deal, claiming the JCPOA was not adequate in pushing Iran to halt its nuclear weapons despite the compliance report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran threatened to enrich its uranium level above 3.67 per cent as allowed in the JCPOA, far from 90 per cent used for developing nuclear weapons. Tehran blamed European countries for failing to save the deal despite the efforts from some of the European nations to help Tehran to bypass the U.S-imposed sanction.

The UN resolution does not ban Iran’s missile program

In December 2018, the UN Security Council held a meeting to discuss Iran’s missile program at the requests from the UK and France. Despite the failure to produce a consensus, Western diplomats insisted that Iran’s missile program violated the resolution 2231.

Iran’s geopolitical position makes it vulnerable to the attack from the world’s superpower. Therefore, the presence of a missile for the country’s security is vital.

“Iran has always been a country subject to aggression. Various powers have always done their best to use Iran as their play court in a war of interests. We can look back to the Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan’s invasions of Iran centuries ago to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein’s war against the country in the new era. We also remember Iran being the “bridge of victory” for the Allied Powers in WWII despite Tehran’s declaration of neutrality. All these events showed that Iran has a special geopolitical position that necessitates a high-level defense power. This is not peculiar to the post-Revolution Iran. Shah of Iran also tried to equip the navy with warships to secure the country’s superiority in the sea,” Iranian professor Mehdi Motaharnia told Alwaght.

Zarif tweeted that US envoy to Iran Brian Hook had admitted that the resolution does not ban Iran’s missile program.

“Brian Hook has given our E3 JCPOA partners a timely reminder, openly admitting that missile testing is not prohibited in the Security Council’s Resolution 2231,” the veteran diplomat wrote as Tehran Times quoted.

The West’s double standard for Iran

In July 2018, the Germany Security Agency released a report accusing Iran of acquiring goods and technology used for the development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missiles, raising concern over the violation of the 2015 JCPOA.

As Fox News reported, the file stated that Tehran had “made 32 procurement attempts… that definitely or with high likelihood were undertaken for the benefit of proliferation programs.”

However, France and the UK secretly helped Israel to acquire atomic bombs in the 1950s and 1960s. Europeans also voted to block calls for Israel to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which would give access to the IAEA inspectors to each member’s nuclear facility.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell revealed that Israel had 200 nuclear bombs aimed at Iran in his leaked email. Powell also praised the JCPOA, saying the treaty benefited both Iran and the US

It’s a pretty good deal,” the former general told NBC.

Marc Finaud, a senior member of Geneva Centre for Security Policy, highlighted the weakness of the international arms control framework on a missile, as it only has the MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime) and The Hague Code of Conduct, which are a voluntary set of procedures.

In April 1987, industrialized nations grouped in G7 (the UK the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan) set up the MTCR. It is a non-formal, voluntary membership involving 35 countries, aimed at containing missile technology proliferation, restricting missile system production, drone, and all technologies related that can carry missile weighing 500 kilograms and with a range of 300 kilometers. Despite being the treaty’s non-signatories, China has expressed its commitment to maintaining principles and rules in the MTCR.

However, the West adopts a double standard when it comes to rules on missile technology. For example, the purchase of China’s Dongfeng-21 missile by Saudi Arabia in 2007. Washington gave the green light after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had carefully studied that missile, saying that the China-made weapon was not capable of carrying out nuclear warheads as Newsweek reported.

“It is indeed regrettable that the international arms control framework on missiles is very weak: it only consists of the MTCR export control regime and The Hague Code of Conduct, a voluntary set of transparency- and confidence-building measures. In the case of the Middle East, means of delivery of weapons of mass destruction are part of the mandate of a WMD-free Zone, but discussions of this project have not made much progress so far,” the expert argued.

Regional framework is necessary

Iran’s missile program started when Iraq launched missiles as Iran during the  Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, triggered by border issues. While Israel and Egypt were the first nations to develop their ballistic missile.

Several countries in the Middle East possess long-range ballistic due to the threat perceptions fueled by other countries’ arms build-up, said “Indeed, in the Middle East, several countries have wide-ranging missile capabilities that are the result of threat perceptions often fueled by the others’ arms build-ups. This is why the only effective way of dealing with that issue is a regional framework. With other experts, my organization has made proposals for a series of measures (such as limits on range and payload and ban on transfers) that could be adopted by the key regional states as one of the first steps towards the establishment of a WMD-free zone,” Finaud spoke to Javar Heierannia of Mehrnews

L'articolo Israel is Testing a New Mysterious Missile proviene da InsideOver.

North Korea does not celebrate Christmas, but it is willing to make an exception this year to give the United States a gift. According to Ri The Song, first Vice Minister at the Foreign Ministry, it us up to Washington to decide the nature of the present. Reading between the lines, Pyongyang appears to be hinting at further missile tests if the US refuses to return to the negotiating table. The gift could be a concession, however, if American diplomats reengage their North Korean counterparts after months of stalled discussions. 

Merry Christmas

It is not entirely clear what the gift may entail, however, so for now, Ri’s comments have only provoked speculation. The last time North Korea gave the US a “gift” was in 2017 for the Fourth of July when it test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile. Pyongyang set a deadline of the end of the year for nuclear discussions, but with only three weeks left in December and no news from Washington, time will likely run out. 

Ri accused the US of purposely delaying peace negotiations for political gain. 

“The dialogue touted by the US is, in essence, nothing but a foolish trick hatched to keep the DPRK bound to dialogue and use it in favor of the political situation and election in the US,” he said.

The North Korean situation has taken a backseat to other pressing matters, such as the US-China trade war and the Iranian nuclear deal. At home, US President Donald Trump is also facing impeachment over a scandal involving Ukraine and Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden. Although Trump opened the door to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un when he took office, discussions have lacked steady progress. Trump even became the first sitting president to meet with a North Korean leader at the demilitarized zone since the Korean War, an impressive gesture toward building a new relationship. 

Trump appeared unfazed by Kim’s promise of a holiday gift.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said, speaking from London. “My relationship with Kim Jong Un is really good, but that doesn’t mean he won’t abide by the agreement we signed. I hope he lives up to the agreement, but we’re going to find out.”

Updated Technology

The agreement Trump referred to was signed at a summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018. Each agreed to establish relations in the pursuit of peace and prosperity. Furthermore, Pyongyang agreed to work toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. This year, North Korea began test-firing missiles once more, but Trump did not budge.

“North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me,” Trump said. Although he said he hopes Kim abides by their agreement, it has become clear that Kim is only willing to do so if the US returns to the negotiating table. 

Pyongyang fired another missile on a new launcher dubbed its “super-large” launcher Nov. 29 in what it claimed was a “final review” of the setup. The practical effect of the test is that North Korea is ready to deploy updated offensive missiles, but the underlying message was meant not for its South Korean adversary, but the Trump administration. Kim is not baiting the US into war, but rather flexing the nation’s muscles to convince Washington to reopen diplomatic discussions. 

Waiting Game

It is neither a new nor recent strategy; Iran is using a similar playbook by gradually reducing its adherence to the Obama-era nuclear deal. The strategy has not worked for Tehran, but North Korea may find success where the Middle Eastern state has failed because Trump has expressed admiration for Kim and spoken highly of talks. At the last meeting between the two powers, American officials told the media they felt talks were “good,” even as North Korean diplomats expressed the opposite sentiment. 

Trump has met Kim, but while the American leader viewed it as a concession, Kim was emboldened by the move. As American negotiators continued to hold discussions, the Trump administration was comfortable with the pace and lack of progress, aside from a non-binding agreement signed between Trump and Kim. Pyongyang has different take on the situation, preferring to have a formal deal in place before the end of 2019. 

North Korea perhaps wants a deal made before the US election season begins in earnest because they fear Trump might lose and due to the time demands required to run for president. If Trump is busy holding rallies, he will not have time to focus on North Korea. A Christmas gift is a reminder that the problem is still there and Kim is not content to wait idly in the hope that one day Trump might pick up the phone again and arrange for another summit. Trump’s nonchalant demeanour indicates that he has larger obsessions at home (i.e. impeachment) and abroad (Iran and China) and when you deal with Trump, you do it on his terms, at his pace.

L'articolo North Korea Promises Christmas Gift for America proviene da InsideOver.