UN probing claim that China aided N.Korean rocket launch

The United Nations has begun an investigation into the claim that China, a permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, violated a resolution on imposing sanctions on North Korea, the Financial Times of the U.K. reported Thursday.

U.N. officials are looking into the allegation that a large missile launcher shown at Pyongyang’s military parade Sunday was based on a design from the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.

If the allegation is confirmed, experts say it could transform diplomacy among South Korea, the U.S., China and Japan and even negatively affect China’s status on the Security Council.

After the North conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, the Security Council adopted U.N. resolutions 1718 and 1874 to impose trade sanctions on the North and banned all member countries from supplying Pyongyang with weapon-related technology or equipment.

The Times also said a sanctions committee panel of experts under the Security Council that monitors breach of sanctions against the North made the allegation based on intelligence provided by analysts at IHS Jane’s, a U.S. military analysis agency, adding the U.N. is investigating.

According to Foreign Policy, a U.S. magazine on foreign affairs, Rep. Mike Turner (Rep.-Ohio) also sent a letter Tuesday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. In the letter, Turner said "The missile, unveiled at the recent military parade in Pyongyang, is based on Chinese technology, in violation of international obligations and a threat to the national security interest of the United States.”

The Times also quoted Marcus Noland, a North Korea expert and deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, as saying, “If China is seen to be violating Security Council sanctions by helping to militarize North Korea, it puts China in a different light and changes the diplomatic relations between it and South Korea, Japan and the U.S.”

“This would be really big, it really changes things,” he said, adding, "It would also heat up the U.S. presidential election with [Republican candidate Mitt] Romney going after [President Barack] Obama for being weak on China.”

lightee@donga.com