E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

NORK on slippery slope to becoming a Chinese satellite state
From East Asia Intel, subscription.
SEOUL — China now accounts for nearly 57 percent of North Korea’s total trade volume. Foreign goods sold in what passes as North Korean markets are predominantly made in China. China Airlines is making three flights a week between Beijing and Pyongyang, and Beijing is actively seeking to invest in the large Musan coal mines and other mines in North Korea.
Three flights a week, ya say? Quite the hub of air commerce.
China is also seeking ready access to North Korea’s eastern ports to reduce shipping costs to its northeastern provinces. Most importantly, North Korea depends on its massive neighbor for the lion’s share of oil and food aid.
And that is where the Chicoms have Kimmie by the economic 'nads.
“Economically at least, North Korea has already become a satellite state of China,” said Sung-Min Jang, a former lawmaker who withdrew from South Korea's presidential election in December 2007. “China is avoiding it becoming a political issue because it does not want confrontation with the United States — yet,” he said.

However, China’s push into North Korea is also being felt by ordinary South Koreans. A South Korean businessman who last year toured Mt. Paekdu, which straddles the border of China and North Korea, was shocked at a map showing the entire mountain as Chinese territory.
"Isn't this a mistake? This reads China on the map."
"We make no mistakes. Our map is correct. Your map is wrong."
“Our map clearly and traditionally indicates the mountain is Korean territory although we were told at school that half of the lake on the top had been given to China in return to its aid to North Korea during the Korean War.”

Andrei Lankov, a Russian scholar on Korean history who teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul, said China wants North Korea to be politically stable, economically developed and diplomatically in compliance with China. “It will certainly intervene if an unstable situation develops in North Korea as it does not want South Korea to absorb the Stalinist country and lose the buffer zone now existing between its borders and South Korea, which is heavily under American influence," he said. “China will not hesitate to intervene if the current North Korean leadership loses its grasp on power and the country falls into chaos,” Lankov said. “There will be no significant international force to oppose it.”
And the North Korean people get screwed again.
Posted by: Alaska Paul 2008-01-25
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=221311