Chinese experts: New move on DPRK 'proper, necessary'

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By Zhang Haizhou and Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-18 10:31

Chinese experts are divided on whether the UN Security Council's latest expanded sanctions against the DPRK will work. But they believe the move reflects the international community's unity against Pyongyang's nuclear endeavor, and called for restarting dialogues to diffuse tensions.

Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, said the latest measure was "proper and necessary."

As a result of the sanctions, "the DPRK would find it more difficult to advance missile technology and develop nuclear weapons," Shi said.

Asked how Pyongyang would respond, Shi noted the DPRK had always been "tough, rejective, and even provocative" toward previous UN resolutions and sanctions. "But the international community has no better choice," Shi said.

China and Russia may have differences with the US and its allies over how to implement the expanded sanctions, he said. "But their general standpoint in opposing Pyongyang's nuclear bid is the same."

But Liu Jiangyong, an expert on Northeast Asian security at Tsinghua University, said the UN measure won't be effective. "It may delay the DPRK's nuclear plan from a technological point of view," Liu said. "But from the policy perspective, it won't work, and may even backfire."

The latest measure won't push the DPRK back to the Six-Party Talks, Liu added.

Kim Yong-Nam, No 2 in command of the DPRK, said in Egypt on Thursday that his country wouldn't resume the Six-Party Talks because the US and its allies don't respect the DPRK's sovereignty.

Yang Xiyu, a DPRK expert at the China Institute of International Studies, said expanding the sanctions is a "more symbolic than concrete" move to show the international community's unity in opposing Pyongyang's nuclear plan.

The expanded sanctions will hardly influence the DPRK, Yang said. "The international community should see sanctions as a means to lead to a resumption of talks," he said.

Washington should have responded positively when Pyongyang allowed the two captured US reporters to serve their 12-year term in a hotel instead of prison, he said. "A positive response from the US will help resume dialogue," Yang said.

As Pyongyang has announced it will withdraw from the Six-Party Talks permanently, the international community should try to find some other diplomatic arrangement to resolve the nuclear issue, said Wang Fan, director of the institute of international relations at China Foreign Affairs University.

"The current situation requests the emergence of a new communication channel," he said.

"It will not be surprising that the DPRK will continue its hard-line rhetorics," Wang said. "However, Pyongyang is expected to take softened measures as response," he said.