CHINA/NORTH KOREA: Business as usual on Chinese-North Korean border town of Dandong as U.S. Secretary of State Condolezza Rice arrives to cool nuclear tensions

Trucks drove across the China-North Korean border bridge into the Chinese town of Dandong on Friday (October 20, 2006) to ferry goods across both sides as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beijing to meet with Chinese officials. Attention is now focused on whether Chinese diplomats returning from Pyongyang had managed to persuade North Korea to take steps to cool nuclear tensions. Rice's crisis trip to east Asia has been overshadowed by speculation that communist North Korea might be about to detonate a second nuclear device following its first test on October 9. Her arrival in China comes a day after Beijing, Pyongyang's biggest ally, sent a high-level delegation to North Korea to deliver what U.S. officials said was a "very strong message". The top U.S. diplomat is expected to get a readout of that meeting led by former foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan who held talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. U.S. officials tried to lower expectations over the outcome of the meeting and said they did not expect any major announcement such as a return to stalled six-party talks. Chinese customs officials inspected North Korean trucks coming into the country with no added scrutiny as a convoy of more than 15 trucks made their way across the border bridge in the morning. Chinese soldiers also conducted a brief training drill below the border bridge, praticising arrests and gunfire manoeuvres with mock pistols. Dandong resident and businessman Shan Jie said he could feel the recent tensions and was worried what a second nuclear test would do to destabilise the cross-border trade. "So we are very worried whether there would be pollution after a (second) nuclear test and whether there will be military action against North Korea by the international community. These are what were are worried about. If any of these two things happen, our business and trade with North Korea will be entirely halted," said Shan, chief executive of the Dandong Federal Business Company, a consultancy that often does business with North Korea. In Washington, a senior Bush administration official said the United States was preparing for the possibility not only of a second nuclear test but a further round of missile tests like those Pyongyang conducted in July. Two leading nuclear weapons experts said in an analysis published on Thursday that North Korea could have little faith in its nuclear stockpile given the yield of its first nuclear test and hence was likely to conduct another. In Seoul on Thursday (October 19), Rice said she hoped the Chinese mission would convince North Korea to return to moribund six-party talks on winding up its nuclear program. The six-party talks have been stalled for the past year after the United States imposed financial restrictions on North Korea. The talks bring together the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China. Rice played down differences on Thursday with South Korea and China over financing and weapons sanctions imposed on North Korea in a U.N. resolution, saying Washington had no wish to escalate the crisis. China in particular fears a heavy-handed approach to inspections of cargo at sea may provoke military confrontations and stoke tensions on the Korean peninsula. It is also wary about squeezing its food and energy lifeline to Pyongyang, fearing this could lead to an exodus of refugees and even the ultimate implosion of the state. Rice said some reports on how to implement inspections of North Korean vessels on the high seas had been "exaggerated" and insisted the United States had no intention of imposing a blockade or putting the already isolated state in quarantine.

ITN Source | October 20, 2006

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