China Stance On N. Korea Bomb Test

>>The following is Chinese administration’s reactions before and after the nuclear test delivered by the newsmagazine.

They were in a great shock when North Korea had the nuclear test-

Russian Ambassador to North Korea Andrei Karlov was informed of the plan and its background two hours before the nuclear test. However, China was informed just 20 minutes earlier.

The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee led by President Hu Jintao urgently called the extra meeting in the period of sixth general meeting of 16th central committee of Chinese Communist Party.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs published their statement two hours after the nuclear test, “We firmly object to them and strongly insist,” with an expression of “outrageous action” in a very strong nuance. Those expressions were barely used in the relationship between the two countries in 50 years’ history.

This reveals that China resented North Korea’s nuclear test and exposed their feeling that they were betrayed by North Korea. Such foreign ministry statements are subject to approval of President Hu. <<

I think China may be the best hope of containing this problem. Size and proximity give them a very strong presence in the region and a large scale conflict in N. Korea would certainly affect Chinese interests.
donga.com [english donga]