China suspected of providing missile technology to N. Korea
Thursday February 2, 9:16 AM
(Kyodo) _ (EDS: THIS IS THE FOURTH OF FOUR NEWS FOCUS STORIES ABOUT CHINA'S INTELLIGENCE WAR)
In 1970, Libya sent a special envoy to China to buy nuclear weapons, but Chinese leaders, including Premier Zhou Enlai, refused to deal, saying the weapons were not for sale.
But immediately after 1974, when India carried out a successful nuclear test, China reversed its nuclear nonproliferation policy and provided nuclear arms technology to Pakistan.
According to a U.S. Army Intelligence Agency report in May 1975, China dispatched 12 scientists to Pakistan to train nuclear engineers.
In April 1983, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a telegram that Pakistan had made several atomic bombs.
The U.S. State Department said in a document at the end of the year that China had expanded its cooperation to include a design drawing for nuclear equipment.
At the end of 2003, 20 years on, Libya announced it had abandoned all plans to produce weapons of mass destruction, and allowed nuclear arms experts from the United States and Britain to make on-the-spot inspections.
In January the following year, 25 tons of nuclear arms-related parts and documents discovered were carried to the United States.
A U.S. newspaper said that among the documents, there was a design drawing for nuclear weapons written in Chinese.
It was a drawing for an older type of nuclear weapon from the 1960s, believed to be a drawing, which Pakistan's "Father of Atomic Bomb," Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, obtained from China and which was sold to Libya.
Since the 1980s, China has joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), and has also joined the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), formally taking part in the international framework for preventing nuclear proliferation.
But China is still a source of technology for weapons of mass destruction. Chinese enterprises are entering the lucrative and dangerous business and are involved in exports of materials related to such weapons to Iran and other countries.
Sanctions were imposed by the George W. Bush administration on such Chinese enterprises in 14 cases by the end of 2004.
To Iran, China has sold a design drawing for a uranium ore-conversion facility and the antisubmarine cruise missile C-802.
To North Korea, China is suspected to have supplied missile technology, and machines and parts needed for nuclear development.
U.S. intelligence authorities are paying keen attention to the visit to North Korea by Xiong Guangkai, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, in early August, 1998, immediately before North Korea's surprising launch on August 31 of its three-stage, medium-rangeTaepodong-1 missile.
The U.S. National Security Agency reportedly suspected in late 1998 that the China Academy of Launch Technology was working with North Korea on its space program to develop missiles.
And it obtained information that Chinese enterprises have cooperated "directly or indirectly" with North Korea in the field of its nuclear weapons programs and is investigating whether China was involved in the development of the Taepodong missiles.
The article is here.
Thursday February 2, 9:16 AM
(Kyodo) _ (EDS: THIS IS THE FOURTH OF FOUR NEWS FOCUS STORIES ABOUT CHINA'S INTELLIGENCE WAR)
In 1970, Libya sent a special envoy to China to buy nuclear weapons, but Chinese leaders, including Premier Zhou Enlai, refused to deal, saying the weapons were not for sale.
But immediately after 1974, when India carried out a successful nuclear test, China reversed its nuclear nonproliferation policy and provided nuclear arms technology to Pakistan.
According to a U.S. Army Intelligence Agency report in May 1975, China dispatched 12 scientists to Pakistan to train nuclear engineers.
In April 1983, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a telegram that Pakistan had made several atomic bombs.
The U.S. State Department said in a document at the end of the year that China had expanded its cooperation to include a design drawing for nuclear equipment.
At the end of 2003, 20 years on, Libya announced it had abandoned all plans to produce weapons of mass destruction, and allowed nuclear arms experts from the United States and Britain to make on-the-spot inspections.
In January the following year, 25 tons of nuclear arms-related parts and documents discovered were carried to the United States.
A U.S. newspaper said that among the documents, there was a design drawing for nuclear weapons written in Chinese.
It was a drawing for an older type of nuclear weapon from the 1960s, believed to be a drawing, which Pakistan's "Father of Atomic Bomb," Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, obtained from China and which was sold to Libya.
Since the 1980s, China has joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), and has also joined the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), formally taking part in the international framework for preventing nuclear proliferation.
But China is still a source of technology for weapons of mass destruction. Chinese enterprises are entering the lucrative and dangerous business and are involved in exports of materials related to such weapons to Iran and other countries.
Sanctions were imposed by the George W. Bush administration on such Chinese enterprises in 14 cases by the end of 2004.
To Iran, China has sold a design drawing for a uranium ore-conversion facility and the antisubmarine cruise missile C-802.
To North Korea, China is suspected to have supplied missile technology, and machines and parts needed for nuclear development.
U.S. intelligence authorities are paying keen attention to the visit to North Korea by Xiong Guangkai, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, in early August, 1998, immediately before North Korea's surprising launch on August 31 of its three-stage, medium-rangeTaepodong-1 missile.
The U.S. National Security Agency reportedly suspected in late 1998 that the China Academy of Launch Technology was working with North Korea on its space program to develop missiles.
And it obtained information that Chinese enterprises have cooperated "directly or indirectly" with North Korea in the field of its nuclear weapons programs and is investigating whether China was involved in the development of the Taepodong missiles.
The article is here.