US says China fears Korean crisis after Putin trip; as North sends trash-filled balloons south again

US says China fears Korean crisis after Putin trip; as North sends trash-filled balloons south again
By Shaun TANDON
Washington (AFP) June 24, 2024

China, despite its public alliance with Russia, is worried North Korea could be emboldened into starting a regional crisis following President Vladimir Putin's visit, a top US official said Monday.

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said that China has indicated in interactions with the United States that it is "anxious" after Putin last week signed a defense deal with Pyongyang.

"I think it would be fair to say that China is probably worried that North Korea will be somehow encouraged to take provocative steps that could lead to a crisis in Northeast Asia," Campbell said at the Council on Foreign Relations.

He pointed to the rise in small-scale military incidents by North Korea on its frontier with the South, as well as Pyongyang's "really provocative language" and "absolute clear determination" to avoid diplomacy with the United States.

Russia, the United States believes, is looking at greater support for North Korea including potentially on the nuclear front, Campbell said.

"This is a dangerous set of developments and one that we are watching," Campbell said.

North Korea is under a slew of UN sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs but has found an eager partner in Russia, a veto-wielding Security Council member, by pumping out artillery shells for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Putin signed an agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that included a pledge for the two countries to come to each other's aid if attacked, a seeming return to a Cold War-era alliance.

China, which has long been the primary partner of Pyongyang but recently has been keeping Kim at arm's length, has said little publicly about Putin's trip.

The United States has also accused China of fueling a military buildup by Russia through industrial exports, although not direct arms shipments.

Campbell said that while China and Russia were united on antagonism to the West, the two powers had different takes not only on North Korea but on Beijing's ties with former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

"I think there will likely, in the future, be a resurgence of tension between Moscow and Beijing," Campbell said.

But in the nearer term, Campbell said, China has gained the upper hand and may be able to source from Russia submarines or other technologies on which Moscow remains more advanced.

- Support for Philippines -

Putin's trip to Pyongyang has rattled South Korea, which normalized relations with Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union and said it will reconsider its ban on supplying weapons to Ukraine.

Putin's disruption comes at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping has largely sought to lower the temperature with the United States, including through diplomacy with President Joe Biden.

One exception has been over the Philippines, a treaty-bound US ally, which has seen escalating confrontations as Beijing pushes its claims in dispute-rife waters.

In the latest clash, a Filipino soldier lost a finger.

Campbell, asked what actions by Beijing would trigger the treaty, said only that the United States has had "close consultations" with the Philippines about it.

"Our senior officials have been very clear about what circumstances we would consider that the treaty between the United States and the Philippines would come into play," Campbell said, declining to elaborate further.

He said the United States has also taken unspecified "private steps" to address tensions and that the Philippines wanted to be "cautious" in approaching China.

"They do not seek a crisis with China. They are seeking dialogue," he said.

North Korea resumes sending trash-filled balloons across border
Washington DC (UPI) Jun 25, 2024 - North Korea sent some 350 trash-filled balloons toward South Korea overnight, Seoul's military said Tuesday, as back-and-forth provocations continue across a tense inter-Korean border.

As of Tuesday morning, around 100 balloons carrying trash and waste paper had landed in Seoul and the northern part of Gyeonggi Province, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.

An analysis of recovered balloons found they did not contain hazardous materials, the JCS said.

The latest launch marked the fifth time in the last month that North Korea has sent balloons filled with debris and even excrement, according to South Korean officials.

Seoul's Unification Ministry told local media on Monday that parasites, such as roundworms and threadworms, believed to have originated in human excrement, were detected in earlier balloons.

South Korea briefly resumed anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker broadcasts at the border earlier this month in response to the launches. On Tuesday, the military said it was prepared to begin the transmissions again at any time.

"Our military's psychological warfare broadcast against North Korea is ready to be implemented immediately and will be implemented flexibly depending on the strategic and operational situation," the JCS message said. "This depends on North Korea's actions."

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol mentioned the North's balloons during an address to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Korean War in the southeastern city of Daegu on Tuesday, calling their launch "despicable and irresponsible."

Yoon also slammed the defense treaty signed by North Korea and Russia last week during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Pyongyang.

"Last week, [North Korea] signed a 'Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty' with Russia, which started the war in Ukraine, and promised to strengthen military and economic cooperation, in direct violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions," Yoon said.

"It is an anachronism that runs counter to the progress of history," he said.

The North's launches appear to be a response to the longstanding practice of North Korean defectors floating balloons with anti-Pyongyang messages across the border.

Activist group Fighters for a Free North Korea said it sent 20 balloons carrying some 300,000 leaflets, USB drives containing South Korean media and U.S. dollars across the border last week.

On Friday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement in official media condemning the launch by "disgusting defectors" and warning of possible retaliation.

North Korea has reacted with fury to the activists' balloons in the past. In June 2020, Pyongyang severed all communications with Seoul and blew up an inter-Korean liaison office over what it called South Korea's failure to rein in the defectors.

The demilitarized zone that has separated the two Koreas since fighting halted in the 1950-53 war has also been the site of multiple border incursions in recent weeks, with North Korean troops crossing the military demarcation line three times since June 9.

On each occasion, the South Korean military fired warning shots and the North's soldiers returned to their side of the border.

JCS officials said the crossings appear unintentional, as the North has been ramping up activity in frontline areas of the DMZ since withdrawing from an inter-Korean military agreement in November.

North Korean soldiers have been observed clearing land, laying mines, reinforcing tactical roads and installing structures that appear to be anti-tank barriers at several locations, the JCS said.