The only way North Korea will give up nuclear weapons is if China finally abandons decades of support for the isolated state, a senior South Korean official said today.
In unusually direct comments, he said there were enough sanctions in place to force Pyongyang back to the negotiating table if China gave them its full backing following a surge in military threats by the North, including last month's nuclear test.
"I think they are agonising what to do," the senior presidential official told Reuters, asking not to be identified in line with government policy on sensitive issues. China, which fought with the North in the 1950-53 Korean War, has long been its main benefactor, seeing the communist neighbour as a buffer to U.S. influence on the divided peninsula.
"We do not want to simply push China into a corner ... our intention is to persuade China to look at the world a little bit differently. For the last 60 years ... their strategy looked at North Korea from the Cold War situation," he said.
"A free, nuclear-free and more open North Korea and possibly a unified Korea in the future can be even more beneficial for China's national interest."
China joined a UN Security Council resolution on June 12th widening sanctions to cut off Pyongyang's lucrative arms trade after the North's second nuclear test on May 25th, but there have been doubts that it would carry out the punishments.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said today nations tracking North Korean ships should muster "ample evidence and proper cause" before seeking to check their cargo.
"This is a complex and sensitive issue," he told a news conference in Beijing when asked about enforcing the resolution.
"China will strictly observe the relevant Security Council resolution. We believe ship inspections should be enforced according to relevant international and domestic law, and one should have ample evidence and proper cause."
The United States navy has been tracking a North Korean ship that South Korean news reports have said may be headed to Burma, possibly carrying missiles or missile parts.
North Korea, whose annual GDP is about $20 billion, is believed to earn about $1.5 billion annually from missile sales.
Its latest round of sabre-rattling is seen as trying to consolidate the iron grip of leader Kim Jong-il, whose health is thought to be in decline, so he can ensure his youngest son, Jong-un, succeeds as the third generation of his family to have ruled the hermit state since it was founded.
The presidential Blue House official said that process was part of a campaign by the impoverished North to become what it says will be "a great prosperous and powerful nation" by 2012.
"We have a critical momentum of three or four years from now," he said. "They want to finish their 'military first' policy by 2012. If we cannot prevent and block this (by then) ... it will be too late for us to reverse the situation."
Reuters