As the Trump administration continues to implore the Chinese government to put additional pressure on North Korea in an effort to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and ICBM development programs, more evidence has surfaced that Beijing is supplying Pyongyang with critical missile launch infrastructure.
A panel of experts with the UN Security Council has identified transport vehicles of Chinese origin that were shown in a military parade in April carrying China’s new KN-11 sub-launched ICBM. “The trucks carried the ‘Sinotruk’ logo on the fuel tank and shared some identical features of the Sinotruck Howo 6×6 series trucks shown at the 10 October 2015 military parade,” said the experts’ report.
This is the second major transfer of strategic missile technology from China that the panel has identified. In June 2013, the panel noted the sale of six to eight transporter-erector-launchers by China known as TELs; they are now integrated with North Korea’s first road-mobile ICBM system, the KN-08.
China said the TELs were sold to Pyongyang as lumber carriers, but they are far too wide for logging roads and operations. Also, the vehicles are strategic in nature; they are manufactured by the Sanjiang Special Truck Co. of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).
Rick Fisher, a military affairs analyst, said the Chinese assistance increased the threat to the United States.
“Let’s be clear, North Korea’s is able to wage surprise offensive nuclear strikes against the United States only because China has supplied the means for North Korea’s missiles to be mobile, to reach launch positions before the United States can strike them,” Fisher said.
“This is really is no less an outrage than Nikita Khrushchev’s supplying nuclear missiles to Fidel Castro’s Cuba,” he said. [source]
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