Subject: EEE会議（北朝鮮と中国の関係）
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 12:52:39 +0900
From: "kkaneko" <kkaneko@eagle.ocn.ne.jp>

各位殿

中国の外交政策、とりわけ対北朝鮮政策は、胡錦涛主席の就任後日が浅いこともあ
り、今ひとつはっきりしませんが、３月に３日間だけ北への石油供給をストップした
（北のミサイル発射実験などに対する制裁措置として）模様です。その結果中朝関係
が冷え始めたという観測がありますが、これはブッシュ政権に対する中国のジェス
チャーに過ぎないという見方もあり、即断できません。　英国紙「ガーディアン」の
記事をどうぞ。
金子熊夫
********************************************

China cuts oil supply to North Korea
　　　　　Jonathan Watts in Tokyo
　　　　　Tuesday April 1, 2003
　　　　　The Guardian

China cut off oil supplies to North Korea for three days last month to
punish
its oldest ally for the nuclear standoff with the United States, diplomats
said
yesterday.

The decision could mark a major shift in north-east Asia, where Beijing and
Pyongyang once boasted they were "as close as lips and teeth" in their
opposition to Washington.

It could also herald a dangerous new stage in the isolation of North Korea,
which fears that it is next after Iraq in President George Bush's "war on
terror".

Diplomats said the oil pipeline from China's northeastern province of
Liaoning
to North Korea was shut for three days in early March, soon after Pyongyang
test-fired a missile into waters between the peninsula and Japan. Any halt
in
supplies would be a severe blow to North Korea, where energy and food
shortages
have left the population on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.

China is its main source of fuel, exporting an estimated 1m tonnes of oil
each
year to Pyongyang.

The Chinese reportedly told the North Korean government that the suspension
was
necessary for technical reasons, but it also served as a warning. "The tough
message was, 'Get straight,'" one diplomat told Reuters news agency.

The Chinese foreign ministry has not commented on the report. The
state-owned
oil supply company denied any halt of exports to North Korea in the past two
months.

According to South Korean officials, however, the government in Beijing has
grown increasingly irritated by the behaviour of its former ally, which
walked
out of a global treaty to stop the spread of nuclear weapons earlier this
year,
kicked out International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and restarted a
reactor
suspected of being part of a programme to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

If North Korea declares itself a nuclear power, China is worried that Japan,
South Korea and Taiwan could follow suit.

During a visit to Beijing in February, Colin Powell, the US secretary of
state,
played on these fears, and the benefits of improved trade with Washington,
in
calling on China to put more pressure on Pyongyang.

After his visit, Mr Powell said China was working quietly behind the scenes.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that Beijing was acting as an
intermediary with North Korea and had passed on US proposals for
multilateral
talks.

Diplomats say Chinese officials have held 60 meetings with their North
Korean
counterparts about the nuclear crisis since it started last October.

The extent of Beijing's influence - and its willingness to exert it - remain
open to speculation. Political sources in Tokyo say Chinese police have
begun
arresting suspected North Korean spies near the border in what could be a
prelude to a major intervention.

However, given North Korea's chronic shortage of foreign currency and
China's
increasing focus on economics rather than ideology, the cut in oil supplies
might also have been a punishment for non-payment of bills.

Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003