Readinbg News 4U: ‘North Korea is a time bomb’: government advisers urge China to prepare for war
Saturday, December 16, 2017
VietPress USA (Dec. 16, 2017): The high rank advisers in China believe that the Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un is losing the control of North Korean situation and this will cause the war. Chinese government advisers urge China to prepare for the war..
Read this news on scmp.com at:http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2124613/north-korea-time-bomb-government-advisers-urge-china
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‘North Korea is a time bomb’: government advisers urge China to prepare for war
The risk of conflict on the Korean peninsula is the highest its been in decades and Beijing must mobilise resources for fallout, observers say
China must be ready for a war on the Korean peninsula, with
the risk of conflict higher than ever before, Chinese government advisers and a
retired senior military officer warned on Saturday.
Beijing, once seen as Pyongyang’s key ally with sway over
its neighbour, was losing control of the situation, they warned.
“Conditions on the peninsula now make for the biggest risk
of a war in decades,” said Renmin University international relations professor
Shi Yinhong, who also advises the State Council, China’s cabinet.
Shi said US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un were locked in a vicious cycle of threats and it was already too
late for China to avert it. At best, Beijing could stall a full-blown conflict.
“North Korea is a time bomb. We can only delay the
explosion, hoping that by delaying it, a time will come to remove the
detonator,” Shi said on the sidelines of a Beijing conference on the crisis.
Addressing the conference, Wang Hongguang, former deputy
commander of the Nanjing Military Region, warned that war could break out on
the Korean peninsula at any time from now on until March when South Korea and
the United States held annual military drills.
“It is a highly dangerous period,” Wang said. “Northeast
China should mobilise defences for war.”
Northeast China should mobilise defences for war, a retired
PLA deputy commander says. Photo: Chinese defence ministry
Yang Xiyu, a senior fellow at the China Institute of
International Studies affiliated with China’s foreign ministry, said conditions
on the peninsula were at their most perilous in half a century.
“No matter whether there is war or peace, regretfully, China
has no control, dominance or even a voice on the issue,” he said.
China might already be preparing for the worst.
Last week, Jilin Daily, the official newspaper of the
province bordering North Korea, published a full page of advice for residents
on how to respond to a nuclear attack.
Is there any way back from the US-North Korea black hole of
confrontation? China’s foreign minister is not optimistic
A document purportedly from telecom operator China Mobile
about plans to set up five refugee camps in Jilin’s Changbai county also surfaced
online last week.
Wang said the Jilin Daily article was a “signal to the
country to be prepared for a coming war”.
He said China was also worried about the threat North
Korea’s frequent nuclear tests were posing to unstable geological structures in
the region.
China is concerned about geological dangers posed by North
Korea’s nuclear tests. Photo: AP
Nanjing University professor Zhu Feng said that no matter
how minor the possibility, China should be prepared psychologically and
practically for “a catastrophic nuclear conflict, nuclear fallout or a nuclear
explosion”.
“Why do we always act like ostriches? Why do we always
believe a war won’t occur?” Zhu said.
“What China needs is a sense of urgency about its declining
influence in strategy related to the peninsula and the way it brings down
China’s status and role in East Asian security issues.”
He also said Kim’s failure to meet Chinese envoy Song Tao
during his trip to Pyongyang last month was a “humiliation” for China.
North Korea accuses US, Japan and UN of ‘hostile’ campaign
against Pyongyang’s ‘defensive’ nuclear ambitions
Meanwhile at the United Nations in New York, US Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson called on China and Russia to increase their efforts to
halt Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
Tillerson also backtracked on his previous unconditional
offer for talks by saying that Washington would not negotiate with Pyongyang
until it stopped “threatening behaviours”.
Hopes for peace cannot rest on US President Donald Trump and
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Renmin University professor Shi Yinhong says.
Photo: Kyodo
North Korean ambassador to the UN Ja Song-nam accused the
United States, Japan and the United Nations Security Council of waging a
hostile campaign to stop Pyongyang from gaining nuclear weapons that it saw as
necessary to defend itself.
Renmin University professor Shi said hopes for peace could
not rest on Kim and Trump, and China and Russia should work together to argue
against war.
In a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in
Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said war on the peninsula was not
acceptable.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print
edition as: China urged to prepare for war on Korean peninsula
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