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“The document, labeled ‘top secret’ and dated September 15 — 12 days after North Korea’s latest underground nuclear blast — outlines China’s plan for dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue,” according to WFB’s national security reporter, Bill Gertz.
“It states China will allow North Korea to keep its current arsenal of nuclear weapons, contrary to Beijing’s public stance that it seeks a denuclearized Korean peninsula. Chinese leaders also agreed to offer new assurances that the North Korean government will not be allowed to collapse, and that Beijing plans to apply sanctions ‘symbolically’ to avoid punishing the regime of leader Kim Jong-un under a recent U.N. resolution requiring a halt to oil and gas shipments into North Korea.”
In return, China only asked North Korea to halt its current nuclear testing program, while waiting for times to become “ripe” to make genuine moves toward “denuclearization.” In the context of Beijing’s assurance that it will not allow the North Korean regime to collapse, such denuclearization might mean nothing more than China promising massive retaliation in the event the regime is attacked.
“Your department should at the same time seriously warn the Korean authority not to overdo things on the nuclear issue,” the document said. “Currently, there is no issue for our country to forcefully ask Korea to immediately and completely give up its nuclear weapons.
“Instead, we ask Korea to maintain restraint and after some years when the conditions are ripe, to apply gradual reforms and eventually meet the requirement of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.”
Gertz said he obtained the Chinese government document “from a person who once had ties to the Chinese intelligence and security communities. An English translation can be found here. (See below. Pasted it for your review)”
Gertz was unable to secure comment from either the U.S. CIA or the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Public exposure of the document will almost certainly draw an angry response from President Donald Trump, who has previously touted his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump said last year that he had been “going easy” on China.
NO. 000003 TOP SECRET
Document of General Office of the Communist Party of China
GOC Issuance (2017) No. 94
_______________________________________________
The Decision of General Office of the Communist Party of China on Conducting Communication and Coordination Work between Our Country and The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for Further In-depth Solution of Its Nuclear Issue
International Liaison Department of CPC,
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (abbreviated as Korea hereafter) is not only an important military buffer zone for our country to fend off the western hostile forces, but also, for socialism with Chinese characteristics led by our Party, its important position in our political strategy is also irreplaceable. Therefore, our Party and country, must defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Korea at all costs and really ensure the stability and continuity of the Korean government, and unwaveringly stick to our position to firmly maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula. Given the fact that the Korean ruling authorities recently acted arbitrarily again to conduct the sixth underground nuclear test without fully consulting with us and created a huge negative impact on the international community because of this, the Security Council of the United Nations unanimously approved United Nations Security Council Resolution 2375 (referred as the Resolution hereafter) on September 11, 2017 local time to further punish and isolate the Korean ruling authorities. The result of the Resolution appropriately strengthened the punishment against the Korean ruling authorities. However it also aggravated the suffering of the general population inside Korea and further made the situation on the peninsula tending to be more complicated and ambiguous. In any sense, historical experience shows that terms or resolutions as such will not and are impossible to force the Korean ruling authorities to suspend or completely give up conducting nuclear tests. On the contrary, because of huge double pressure from both domestic and foreign sources, based on its own political and security concerns, the Korean ruling authorities will further consolidate its will and determination to continue its development of nuclear forces, and that will aggravate the vicious cycle of the situation on the Korean peninsula. Now, to further broaden and strengthen coordination and effectively deepen the solution of the Korean nuclear issue, according to the related decisions and arrangements for the Korean nuclear issue by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and with the guiding spirit on handling the Korean-related issues from various meetings of the National Security Commission of the Communist Party of China, after research and assessment, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to authorize your department to lead and organize the communication and coordination work with the Korean ruling authorities on its nuclear issues. The specific requirements are as the following:
Your department should further emphasize to Korea about our determination to protect the Korean government on behalf of the Central Committee of CPC and reiterate and confirm the related assurance made by us. At the same time, your department should make further specific, profound, and detailed analyses for Korea on the current situation of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for Korea to make substantial compromises on its nuclear issues. According to the current deployment of world forces and the geographic position of the Korean Peninsula, to prevent the collapse of the Korean government and the possible direct military confrontation with western hostile forces led by the United States on the Korean Peninsula caused by these issues, our country, Russia, and other countries will have to resort to all the effective measures such as diplomatic good offices and military diversion to firmly ensure the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and to prevent “chaos and war,” which is also the common position held firmly by our country, Russia, and others. Meanwhile, considering if the United States rushes to war against Korea, it will certainly have a huge influence and impact on the political and economic structure of the Asian Pacific region and even the whole world. At such a time, the security of Japan and (South) Korea can be hardly taken care of, especially the security of Seoul, the (South) Korean capital. Also, our country, Russia, and others will absolutely not look on the chaotic situation on the Korean Peninsula without taking any action. So taking the factors of various aspects into comprehensive consideration, theoretically the possibility does not exist that western countries led by the United States will carry out armed provocations and even overthrow the current Korean government via military means in order to solve Korean nuclear issues. However, international provocations by Korea via repeatedly conducting nuclear tests has imposed huge international pressure on our country which is continuously accumulating and becoming unbearably heavy. To show the position of our country as a responsible world power to firmly support the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and maintain the authority of its signed Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, while your department gives Korea a stern warning, you should also make further related assurances to Korea at the same time, that is, currently Korea will not have to immediately give up its nuclear weapons, and that so long as Korea promises not to continue conducting new nuclear tests and immediately puts those promises into action, our country will immediately increase economic, trade, and military assistance to Korea, and will add or continue providing the following benefits:
1. To greatly promote increasing trade with Korea to ensure the normal operation of the Korean government and raise the living standard of the Korean people. As for products under international sanctions such as crude oil products (except for the related products clearly defined as related to nuclear tests), under the condition of fully ensuring domestic demand of Korea, we will only make a symbolic handling or punishment.
2. After closing down Korean businesses in China according to the terms of the Resolution, our country will not for the moment restrict Korea from entrusting qualified Chinese agencies from trade with Korea or conducting related trade activities via third countries (region).
3. To further strengthen and increase assistance for the daily life and infrastructure building of Korea, 2018 related assistance funds will have a one-time increase of 15% more than 2017, and in the following five years, they will be increased each year by no less than 10% over the previous year.
4. Regulations that our country would suspend all banking business with Korea will only apply to state-owned banks controlled by the central government and some regional banks.
5. To increase investment in Korean defensive military construction and further provide Korea with high-level military science and technology, such as more advanced mid- and shortrange ballistic missiles, cluster munitions, etc., assisting in strengthening Korea’s ability to maintain stability according to the stability maintenance experience of our country and Korean characteristics.
Your department should at the same time seriously warn the Korean authorities not to overdo things on the nuclear issue. Currently, there is no issue for our country to forcefully ask Korea to immediately and completely give up its nuclear weapons. Instead, we ask Korea to maintain restraint and after some years when the conditions are ripe, to apply gradual reforms and eventually meet the requirement of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. If Korea insists on acting arbitrarily, our country will further assess it and unilaterally impose specific punitive measures against Korean senior leaders and their family members.
This issue is about the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the fundamental interests of our Party, our country, and all Chinese people, so your department should quickly cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, etc. according to the requirements of this decision and related spirit, to carefully make a related working plan, to ensure the sense of responsibility, to strictly maintain related confidentiality, and to seriously accomplish the heavy tasks entrusted by the Central Committee of CPC.
General Office of the Communist Party of China (seal)
September 15, 2017
Copied to: General Office of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, General Office of the State Council, and General Office of the Central Military Commission.
Printed and distributed by the Secretariat of General Office of the Communist Party of China on September 19, 2017.
Senior editor Mark Tapscott can be reached at mark.tapscott@lifezette.com. Follow him on Twitter.
(photo credit, homepage image: Nukes, CC BY-SA 3.0, by R.P Piper; photo credit, article image:
DF-5B Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, CC 0, by Voice of America)
A North Korean military parade (Photo: Stefan Krasowski/Flickr)
The U.S. and allied intelligence services now believe North Korea has miniaturized its nuclear warheads to fit onto its intercontinental ballistic missiles and has the potentially up to 60 nuclear weapons.
This was seen as an undeclared “red line” and prompted President Trump to threaten to bring “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if North Korea’s verbal threats continue; a benchmark North Korea immediately crossed by announcing it was considering a nuclear strike on the U.S. territory of Guam, where 6,000 U.S. troops are stationed. Another 28,000 U.S. troops are in South Korea and 49,000 in Japan.
North Korea threatened to attack Guam in 2013 and its bombastic rhetoric is practically a daily occurrence, but North Korea’s aggressive attacks have increased in recent years including sinking a South Korean ship in 2010, an artillery barrage on a South Korean island that same year, a cyber attack on Sony Pictures in 2014 and a bold assassination of a political rival in a Malaysian airport using the VX biological weapon earlier this year.
Both North Korea and Iran helped the Syrian regime pursue nuclear weapons, resulting in the Israeli airstrike on Bashar Assad’s nuclear reactor in 2007. Various reports indicate that Syria’s nuclear program continued thereafter, albeit on a smaller scale.
In 2009, the UAE intercepted over 2,000 detonators for Hamas’ 122mm Grad rockets and associated equipment. Later that year, Israel intercepted 35 tons of rockets, RPGs, shoulder-fired missiles and equipment for surface-to-air missiles from North Korea to Iran for delivery to the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups in Thailand.
In 2014, it was reported that Hamas was negotiating an arms deal with North Korea worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for missiles and communications equipment and a down payment had already been made. It is strongly suspected that North Korea helped Hamas build its sophisticated tunnel system that was used to attack Israeli civilians and wage war in 2014 against the Israeli military.
The Hamas terrorist group openly thanked North Korea for its political support against Israel this year. The North Korean regime (DPRK) pledged to “mercilessly punish” Israel for its leaders’ accurate description of the ruling leader as a “crazy.” The DPRK said it “fully supports” the Palestinian jihad to have an independent country and to seize Jerusalem, a vague statement that seems to imply material support.
North Korea has a surplus of nuclear weapons. It can afford to sell off a few if it feels confident that U.S. intelligence will be unable to identify and intercept the shipment; a fair assumption given our recent underestimations of their capabilities.
The extreme anti-Americanism and anti-democracy thought that is instilled in the population means this Muslim population will probably be inclined towards radicalism.
North Korea could collaborate with Islamist terrorists or criminal elements for an attack in America. After all, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps hoped to hide behind Mexican drug cartel members in its plan to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington D.C. by blowing up a diner.
Ryan Mauro is ClarionProject.org’s Shillman Fellow and national security analyst and an adjunct professor of counter-terrorism. He is frequently interviewed on top-tier television and radio.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he offered a “practical alternative” to the deal being negotiated over Iran’s nuclear program, after President Barack Obama criticized his address to Congress as containing “nothing new.” Obama said Netanyahu didn’t offer any “viable alternative” and that “as far as I can tell, there was nothing new” in the Tuesday speech.
“In my speech before the Congress, I presented a practical alternative,” Netanyahu said upon landing at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport. He said his alternative would impose tougher restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and delay how quickly the Islamic Republic could assemble a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu reiterated that he had pushed the six powers currently negotiating with Iran — Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the United States — to link easing sanctions to Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism, not just to the nuclear issue. “I also called on the P5+1 to insist on a deal that would link the lifting of those restrictions to Iran’s ceasing its sponsorship of terrorism around the world, its aggression against its neighbors and its calls for Israel’s destruction,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister’s office issued a string of tweets quoting Netanyahu, concluding with the greeting, “Happy Purim,” the holiday based on the experiences recounted in the Book of Esther where the Jewish people were saved from a genocidal Persian official. Netanyahu in his Tuesday address compared the biblical narrative to the existential threat Iran poses to Israel today.
After Netanyahu’s speech, Obama told reporters that “on the core issue, which is how do we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which would make it far more dangerous and would give it scope for even greater action in the region, the prime minister didn’t offer any viable alternatives.”
Earlier this week, Putin promised to retaliate against the United States for new sanctions targeting his friends and business associates, as well as large Russian defense, energy, and financial firms. On Thursday, Putin called President Obama to alert him a civilian jetliner had crashed over Eastern Ukraine, a tragedy the U.S. says was caused by a missile shot from a Russian-made SA-11 mobile surface to air missile system located in a separatist-held area.
Putin’s next call was to none other than the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani.
“Mr. Putin and Mr. Rouhani exchanged views on the state of talks on Iran’s nuclear program,” stated the Kremlin readout of the call. “The two leaders also examined bilateral cooperation matters of mutual interest, including joint projects in the oil and gas sector and in peaceful nuclear energy.”
“An extension is the only thing the Iranians need to complete their bomb work. The whole point of the sanctions was to make sure that time is not on the side of the Iranians.”
U.S. officials, lawmakers, and experts, have been watching and waiting for Putin to use the Iran negotiations as a way to mess with Obama ever since the tit-
for-tat sanctions began in March.
Moscow and Tehran have been negotiating a $1.5 billion oil-for-goods exchange, which could undermine international pressure on Iran to make a deal with the West. But overall, Moscow has continued to be a reasonably constructive part of the international coalition pressing Iran to roll back its nuclear program.
The Obama administration on Friday announced a four-month extension to the talks, which would constitute perhaps the last chance Iran has to land a deal. “This will give us a short amount of additional time to continue working to conclude a comprehensive agreement, which we believe is warranted by the progress we’ve made and the path forward we can envision,” Kerry said in a statement.
But if Putin decides that retaliating against the U.S. and ruining Obama’s foreign policy legacy is more important than sealing a pact with Iran, the whole thing could unravel.
The shooting down of MH17 has escalated the diplomatic war between Washington and Moscow and made that scenario more likely because it could result in more sanctions and legal action against the Russian government.
“Right now, as the U.S. should move legally against Russia, Russia will begin to see its overseas portfolios start to really become encumbered and therefore they might decide to be less helpful on Iran,” Sen. Mark Kirk told The Daily Beast. “Then, the big goose egg that the administration is going to get from Iran will more obviously be a zip.”
The Obama administration Wednesday imposed limited sanctions on many key players in those sectors, saying that broader sectoral sanctions were still on the table.
“Once we realize that [top State Department negotiator] Wendy Sherman got squat in Geneva, I think the Republican leadership will be highly supportive of any legislation on Iran,” Kirk said, referring to the latest round of negotiations.
Lawmakers in both parties are also set to push for new sanctions on Iran this year to be passed into law during the four month extension but not put into force until negotiations fail outright. One Democratic lawmaker who met with Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday at the State Department told The Daily Beast that Kerry said he was open to that idea. The State Department press shop denied Kerry made such remarks.
“An extension is the only thing the Iranians need to complete their bomb work,” said Kirk. “The whole point of the sanctions was to make sure that time is not on the side of the Iranians.”
Even top Democrats in Congress are worried that the MH17 disaster and its effect on U.S.-Russian relations will harm the effort to strike a nuclear deal with Iran.
The incident was “a serious act of terror, and if there was Russian complicity in it, that makes it even worse,” said Elliott Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Considering that we are doing the P5+1 [world power negotiations with Iran] and Russia’s part of that, there are all kinds of intertwining complications involving that.”
Until now, Moscow has retaliated to U.S. financial pressure with sanctions of their own against U.S. officials, lawmakers, and even donors to President Obama who are linked to the gay advocacy community. Putin hasn’t always made the retaliatory sanctions public, but his government sought to respond proportionally and kept other issues out of the dispute.
“A few things that had gone on between the U.S. and Russia despite the sanctions have been the P5+1 talks, the effort to rid Syria of its chemical weapons, and the implantation of treaties like New START,” said Sam Charap, senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic and International Studies.
But Russian can’t punish American banks and energy firms the same way the U.S. punishes Russian entities. American businesses rarely depend on access to the Russian financial system and U.S. officials don’t have assets in Russia.
“If it’s true that the Russians are now diverging from the rest of the P5+1 in the Iran negotiations, that would be a clear sign that they have retaliated for the sanctions,” Charap said.
By cutting off leading Russian oil and gas firms from the American finance system, including Gazprombank and Rosneft, Washington is imposing some of the same sanctions on Russian that it has levied on Iranian entities. This incentivises Putin to seek energy deals with countries including Iran and China. Russia and China inked a $400 billion energy deal only last month, another Russian response to U.S, sanctions.
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