Saturday, November 25, 2017

China Isolates North Korea

Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge. Wikipedia

Newsweek: China Suspends North Korea Flights and Closes Main Road Between Them amid Nuclear Tensions

China further isolated North Korea on Friday by closing the main road between them just a few days after the state-owned airline Air China indefinitely suspended flights from Beijing to the reclusive country.

The China-North Korea Friendship Bridge is closed for "maintenance" and will be reopened once the necessary repairs are made, Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, without offering a timeline. Meanwhile, the decision to suspend flights, announced Tuesday, was reportedly linked to a lack of demand. An official in the company’s Beijing-based press office, who refused to give a full name, simply told Reuters on Wednesday "business was not good" as he explained the decision.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: There are soon good pictures that show how run-down this bridge is at this link .... Dandong Friendship Bridge to close for further renovation: source (NK News).

More News On North Korean Sanctions

China shuts main route into North Korea as nuclear tensions dominate region -- The Independent
Due to repairs, North Korea says it will temporarily close bridge linking nation to China -- AFP-JIJI, AP, Japan/Times
China closing main road connection with North Korea -- ABC News/AP
China Closes Bridge to North Korea After Cancelling China–NKorea Flights Days Earlier -- The Epoch Times
Air China indefinitely suspends flights between Beijing and Pyongyang -- Reuters
China Upholding UN Sanctions Against North Korea, Trade Figures Show -- Bloomberg
North Korea still has plenty of options as it faces new sanctions and a frosty Beijing -- CNBC

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Question has to be asked, If NK attacked China. Would we do anything to help?

Anonymous said...

I would hope so. While China has to take A LOT of the blame that north Korea reached this stage of nuclear armament, and technological advances, if north Korea no longer does their bidding and turns against them, we should help. However. .the real question is this: if north Korea manages to nuke a US city (not unlikely any longer), should a china city be nuked in return? After all, they even sold the rocket fuel to north Korea! Such nuclear postures exist around the world and China should really think about whether its gamble for Asian supremacy hasn't gone too far.

Anonymous said...

Nuclear posture should be similar as during the Cuban missile crisis. Any attack from Cuba, back then, was seen as an attack by Russia and would have been responded to in full response. China equipped North Korea with everything from money (during sanctions!), oil, coil, rocket fuel (not the kind of fuel you get at a gas station, it's difficult to produce), rocket launchers,etc.. So, if North Korea nukes the US, china has to take blame.

Anonymous said...

If North Korea nukes China, I see no reason why we should not help China. The Chinese population is not at fault that their overlords decided to equip North Korea with all that military tech.. they don't know what's going on.. Chinese news doesn't tell them that they sent another shipment of rocket fuel lol.. to them, it's the bad bad USA that is causing all of this :))

James said...

Most of the problems show the bridge is carrying traffic it's not designed for, more so than poor materials and workmanship, though that is also a big factor.
Example: Photo 2 no continuous reinforcing (rebar) in the concrete curb
Photo 3 no continuous reinforcing (rebar) in the concrete
underlayment.
Even if they resolve those issues, they have reached the maximum of wheeled traffic for their design.

jimbrown said...

Actions speak louder than words.

Unknown said...

"Question has to be asked, If NK attacked China. Would we do anything to help" -Anon

China may take it as an affront or opportunistic if we helped.

If they asked, certainly we would help. I can only imagine they would ask if serious casualties would take place among the civilian population and that would cause loss in confidence in the government. I do not see that happening. Unless of course the NK would throw some actinides spinward.

Unknown said...

Nothing like using that good ole WW2 tech.

I wonder if the same Japanese engineers designed and constructed The Friendship Bridge as The Death Railway Bridge (Bridge over the River Kwai).

Also did the Japanese use any Korean or Chinese slave labor to construct the bridge?

How many of the labourers died?

How many of the Japanese engineers were from Hiroshima or Nagasaki?

Unknown said...

From Concrete Steal Reinforcing Institute

1924 - The American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) issued its first standard for concrete reinforcement, AASHO M 31.

1953 - U.S. Navy uses galvanized rebar in a bridge in Bermuda.

It seems as though the Japanese engineers went by the standards of the time. A person would have to look at Japanese standards organizations at the time and/or look at the spread of adoption of various national (international?) standards at the time.

The North Korean get points for being Johny on the post with a strong economy allowing them to do upgrades, refits and maintenance on the 74 year old bridge. Socialism/communism is awesome! Maybe Young Communist can go there and help them out; they must not have found the right flavor of communism yet.


crsi.org/index.cfm/basics/history-of-reinforcing-steel

roadsbridges.com/galvanized-rebar-0