XT
September 18, 2017, 7:50pm
32
You can do a search on this and get a ton of links, but I’ll link to few that jumped out at me (actually, in all honesty, the first few links since I’m just a lazy bastard):
The distinctive biconic warhead design appears similar to a Pakistani design associated with China. China or its ally Pakistan likely provided the warhead design, or the warhead itself, to North Korea. Rick Fisher, a Senior Fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center said, “Indian sources credit China as the source of the new [Pakistani] ABABEEL warhead multiple reentry vehicle technology and it is indeed plausible Pakistan passed such Chinese-origin technology to North Korea.” According to Fisher, China may also have provided the warhead technology directly to North Korea. He said, “as the Hwasong program started during the rule of Kim Jong Il, it is also possible that Chinese technology was originally given to North Korea which fashioned the new warhead that was tested by Pakistan on ABABEEL.”
China also contributed the TEL truck used to transport the missile. TEL stands for transporter-erector-launcher, 6 of which were likely exported by China to North Korea. China and North Korea claimed the truck’s use in North Korea is for timber transport, and therefore not subject to U.N. sanctions on exporting military equipment to North Korea. But experts are skeptical, and cite the truck as key evidence to justify a greater U.S., Japanese and South Korean military buildup, including tactical nuclear weapons useful for destroying North Korean tunnels, in the region. The trucks were first spotted in North Korea in 2011. In 2013, U.N. experts said the truck design exactly matched a Chinese version sold by state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), which makes the Shenzhou rocket and missiles. This year North Korea has used another Chinese truck model, made by Sinotruk, to tow a submarine launched intercontinental missile (SLBM).
The proximity of the Hwasong-14 launch to Chinese territory is yet another indicator of Chinese involvement. The launch site’s proximity to China would ease the transport of equipment, as well as involvement or monitoring by Chinese officials and engineers. Michael Listner, a space policy expert at Space Law & Policy Solutions said, “the missile was launched near China’s border and the calculations for the ballistic reentry could have been obtained with help from the PLA.”
Peter O’Brien, a space and missile consultant, said that “the real reason to loft [the missile on a high trajectory] - besides trying [to] establish you can use that tactic (so you could use a long-range weapon against a neighbor - the ROK, for example) is to fully test a reentry vehicle (can it take the loads from re-entry?).”
O’Brien thinks it is possible that China is helping North Korea with sophisticated and critical heat and pressure testing of the warheads as they reenter the atmosphere. North Korea announced on July 5 that its warhead did successfully withstand the pressure and heat of reentry. O’Brien said that to measure such effects on the warhead, North Korea would need “the ability to collect any telemetry. I have no idea if they have that kind of collection platform, though I would suspect they had modified some fishing boats to carry such collection gear, nor would I be surprised to learn that the PRC is collecting for them.”
China has a motive to assist North Korea’s nuclear missile development, which is to distract world attention from its own aggressive behavior in places like the South and East China Seas. China can also use North Korea’s nuclear weapons as leverage for any negotiations with the U.S., Japan, and South Korea. In the past few months these allies have indeed expressed openness to improved trade relations with China. Trump even took personal political risk by saying he would facilitate U.S.-China trade in exchange for China’s help with North Korean denuclearization.
In addition to the above and in the other links (and, full disclosure, I didn’t read through them all), you also have the fact that China is responsible for most of the hard currency in North Korea (well, the legal hard currency I suppose), which is what allows North Korea the ability to buy any of the stuff they can’t get from China. All this said, though, understand I’m using ‘China’ very broadly here…a lot of this, especially the technology transfers being speculated on aren’t coming officially from the current faction in control of the CCP…they are coming from several other factions within China. But this is something that’s been happening for a LONG time. It’s what enabled North Korea to initial build the first weapons they tested, and what’s enabled them to build more and more sophisticated bombs and missiles.