A newly leaked collection of classified U.S. government cables includes evidence that Washington repeatedly put pressure on the Chinese government to stop the trans-shipping of North Korean military parts and equipment through Beijing to Iran in contravention of UN Resolutions 1718 and 1737 during 2007.
The information came over the weekend in one of approximately 250,000 cables leaked by WikiLeaks, forcing Washington to brief a number of allied governments around the world about their impending publication.
The key cable, sent in the name of then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007, to the U.S. ambassador to China, passes on U.S. intelligence that North Korea plans to ship a number of jet vanes for Iran’s ballistic missile program via an Iran Air flight passing through Beijing on the following day to a company called Shahid Bagheri Industries Group (SBIG), based in Tehran.
The cable states, “On October 25 the U.S. provided PRC (China) officials with detailed information, including the airway bill and flight number, of another imminent shipment of military related goods from North Korea to Iran via Beijing. This shipment was also assessed as destined for Iran’s solid propellant missile development organization, the Shahid Bagheri Industries Group (SBIG). We now have information that the goods will be shipped on November 4 and insist on a substantive response from China to this information.”
SBIG had previously had its assets frozen under UN Resolution 1737 of December 27th, 2006, which commands that UN member states take steps to avoid providing Iran with “items, materials, equipment, goods and technology which could contribute to Iran’s enrichment-related, reprocessing or heavy water-related activities, or to the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems.”
The cable goes on to note that any such trans-shipments are in contravention of the two UN resolutions, 1718 and 1737, and adds, “We assess that the best way to prevent these shipments in the future is for Chinese authorities to take action… that will make the Beijing airport a less hospitable transfer point.”
In an attempt to apply pressure and convey the gravity of the situation, the cable also lists a further eleven occasions when flights passing through Beijing may have been used to trans-ship North Korean parts for the Iranian missile program between December, 2006 and August 2007.
China has been repeatedly accused of only paying lip service to the provisions of UN resolutions, but this is one of the first times that its apparent disregard for the resolutions in cases pertaining to North Korea has been publicly revealed.
