US Embassy Cables: Beijing's Lost Patience Leaves North Korea With Little To Lose

[Turborama]

The revelation that China might accept the idea of reunification under South Korea could make an unstable situation worse

Isabel Hilton
Monday 29 November 2010 21.45 GMT

A Chinese foreign affairs expert earlier this year, asked what China's best option was in North Korea, pulled a despairing face. "Status quo," he answered. As WikiLeaks has revealed, China may have been hoping for the best, but it has been actively planning for a quite different outcome.

The "spoilt child" is increasingly out of Chinese control. The North Korean regime this year has sunk a South Korean warship, resumed its nuclear enrichment programme, and shelled a South Korean island. China has been calling for calm. The question in Beijing today is, what effect will the release of documents have on North Korea's regime, now that the degree of Chinese exasperation with its problematic neighbour is public knowledge?

The Chinese government has ordered domestic media not to report on the WikiLeaks documents, and the website is blocked – as is the Guardian's data download site. But though Beijing may temporarily prevent its citizens accessing the details, the utility of China's friendship with Pyongyang was already heavily questioned in Beijing, not only in discreet foreign policy and security circles, but also in the public media.

After the shelling episode last week, one of China's leading business magazines, Caixin, said: "A large question looming in the minds of many is how much taxpayers' money has been spent on North Korean assistance … Bearing this in mind, the only question to ask is one of principle. Why does China continue to aid North Korea?"

Full article (including comments from Guardian readers): http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/29/wikileaks-north-korea-china-south-reunification

[Danger Mouse]

1. Disturbing.

[Turborama]

2. It's worth refreshing the page every so often as there's a big discussion going on there...

[jwirr]

3. Nothing to lose? Their lives are at risk it they go to far. I would think

that would be enough - but then maybe not with a leader who only thinks about himself.

[HEyHEY]

4. I notice

All the people railing off about how SK is provoking NK seem to have missed this thread.

[Turborama]

5. I hope they come in here....

...I'd like to have a little chat with them about the evidence they don't have.

[HEyHEY]

6. Don't you know? All you have to say is "Gulf of Tonkin" and it's all fine. n/t

[Turborama]

8. Hey, HEyHEY....

Have you seen this yet? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4634737

[HEyHEY]

9. Yeah, I did

Seems strange to me that they go the nuclear route..

[Dreamer Tatum]

7. That's what pisses me off the most about Wikileaks

The revelation that China is tired of NK makes them FAR more dangerous now, and they may see even less to lose by lashing out.

People who support the leak could give a shit less about tens of thousands of S. Korean lives, of course, if Assange gives them even ONE additional data point that GWB was a bad person.

Think about that: ANY consequence is worth the leak to someone desperate for another anti-Bush fix. Sick.