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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
China, N. Korea hit with sanctions
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The State Department has imposed sanctions on companies in China and
North Korea for selling chemical-weapons materials and missile engines to
Iran.
State Department officials yesterday told The Washington Times that
sales to Iran by China's Jiangsu Yongli Chemicals and Technology Import and
Export Corp. and by North Korea's Changgwang Sinyong Corp. triggered a
provision of a 2000 law on weapons shipments to Iran.
Both companies had previously been sanctioned by the United States for
weapons sales.
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
the action shows the administration will follow U.S. laws aimed at curbing
the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological arms, and missile-delivery
systems.
"It is an indication the administration is prepared to implement our
sanctions law," the official said.
The sanctions bar any U.S. government agency from doing business with
the companies or providing assistance to them.
"We did what was required under the law," the State Department spokesman
said. "The sanctions will last for two years."
Officials said the sanctions are largely symbolic since the U.S.
government does not do business with the companies in question.
The department had made no public announcement of the sanctions, which
appeared Tuesday in the Federal Register, the official outlet for U.S.
government announcement of the imposition of sanctions.
It is the first time the Bush administration has imposed economic
sanctions for weapons-related transfers. Some administration officials,
including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, have questioned the use of
sanctions as a foreign-policy tool.
The State Department official said the Chinese company was sanctioned in
1997 for helping build a facility for manufacturing dual-use equipment that
can make chemical arms. "Recently, we observed some more recent behavior [by
the company] that enabled the Iranians to get this plant up and running," the
official said.
The North Korean company was sanctioned for its role in providing Iran
with missile engines. The sales triggered a U.S. law that calls for sanctions
on sales that violate the provisions of the multination Missile Technology
Control Regime.
U.S. intelligence officials disclosed to The Times last year that North
Korea sold 12 missile engines to Iran in November 1999. The engines were
believed to be for Iran's new Shahab medium-range missiles.
The Chinese company, located in Nanjing, produces a variety of chemicals
and related equipment, including pipes and pumps, that have applications for
building chemical weapons, U.S. officials said. In 1997, it criticized the
earlier U.S. sanctions as based on "groundless" charges.
The Changgwang Sinyong company was slapped with U.S. economic sanctions
in April 2000 for selling missile technology to Syria. It was also sanctioned
in January for other missile sales.
The Iran Nonproliferation Act calls for sanctions on companies or
governments that sell goods that can be used for Iran's weapons of mass
destruction or missile programs.
The law, sponsored by Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, New York Republican,
requires the president to report to Congress regularly on weapons and related
sales to Iran that would be banned under U.S. law.
It was targeted at Russian firms that helped Iran's missile programs.
But the legislation also covers sales of nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons-related materials that would boost Iran's capability to build such
arms.
China and North Korea are considered by the U.S. intelligence agencies
that track weapons sales to be among the most aggressive suppliers of
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and missile goods and technology to
developing nations.
China has been sanctioned by the U.S. government in the past for its
arms sales. A CIA intelligence report in 1996 stated that a Chinese firm
shipped 400 metric tons of chemicals used in producing nerve gas to an
Iranian chemical-arms center.
China also helped Iran during the late 1990s to build a factory that
produces special glass-lined equipment -- a key element in manufacturing
chemical weapons.
China is a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which obligates
Beijing not to assist any country in developing chemical arms. But a Senate
Foreign Relations Committee report in September stated that China
"consistently fails to adhere to its nonproliferation commitments."
A CIA report to Congress made public in February stated that Iran in the
first half of 2000 "continued to seek production technology, training,
expertise, equipment, and chemicals that could be used as precursor agents in
its chemical warfare (CW) program from entities in Russia and China."
The report said Iran has stockpiled "several thousand tons" of chemical
arms, including blood, blister and choking agents.
U.S. officials believe Iran plans to use chemical weapons in warheads
for missiles it is developing, including a new medium-range Shahab missile
that has been tested several times in the past two years.
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