• As N. Korea fires five short-range missiles into sea

The U.N. Security Council agreed on Monday to a Chinese request to remove sanctions on four ships the United Nations had blacklisted for ties to Pyongyang’s arms trade.

The agreement came after China secured assurances the vessels would not use North Korean crews, a U.S. official said. China asked the United States on March 16 for help removing the ships from the U.N. blacklist, according to a diplomatic cable sent the same day from the U.S. permanent mission at the United Nations to a group of other U.S. embassies.

The cable, reviewed by Reuters, showed wrangling between top diplomats from the United States and China over the tough new North Korea sanctions, weeks after Washington had presented a united front with Beijing, Pyongyang’s main ally and trade partner.

The U.S. mission at the United Nations declined to comment on the cable or make its ambassador, Samantha Power, available for an interview about the cable. The U.S. Treasury Department, which administers U.S. economic and financial sanctions, also declined to comment.

The removal of the four ships was confirmed in a press release, which was seen by Reuters and will soon be issued by the Security Council, according to U.N. diplomats.

While Washington has been the driving force behind the toughening international sanctions regime, China conducts 90 percent of the trade with North Korea and is the key to enforcing them.

The ships were among 31 vessels sanctioned by the 15-member council on March 2 because they were linked to Ocean Maritime Management (OMM), a North Korean shipping firm known to transport arms and other illicit goods for the secretive state.

“We discovered that they are not OMM ships,” Chinese U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi told Reuters on Monday. “The basis for the listing of the ships is basically that they belong to OMM, so if you make a mistake, then you correct the mistake.” U.S. and other Western officials have said all the original listings were carefully vetted before the ships were added to the blacklist.

That list was appended to the sweeping Security Council resolutions implemented on March 2, following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January.

The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Security Council committee on North Korea sanctions agreed to the request after China secured written commitments the four ships would no longer use North Korean crews.

The four ships include the Jin Teng, a cargo ship detained by the Philippines days after the sanctions took effect. “We’re pleased with the outcome,” said the U.S. official. “It achieved an impact, a real world outcome.”

He added it was a sign of a “productive working relationship with China” on North Korea and that it was “gratifying to see such instant real-world effects” of the U.N. sanctions regime.

Liu had raised the issue of the four sanctioned vessels last week in a meeting with Power, his U.S. counterpart, according to the cable reviewed by Reuters. Power approved the unclassified cable, which went to the U.S. mission at the U.N. and to American embassies in Manila, Tokyo and Seoul.

The cable pointed to American frustration with what U.S. officials characterized as China’s attempts to hold up the routine renewal of a U.N. panel of experts in return for de-listing the ships.

The panel is made up of a team of international experts who monitor and research potential breaches of resolutions against North Korea and recommend entities that could be sanctioned.

Liu had asked Power’s help in removing the ships from the list in an “easy, smooth and quick way,” to get the panel renewed, according to the document’s characterisation of Liu’s request. The easiest way, Liu said, “would be to work quickly to get all these issues settled,” according to the cable.

Power told Liu China’s linking of the issues and attempts to hold up the renewal of the panel was “not going over well in Washington,” according to the cable, nd asked China to let the renewal go forward. “You don’t need to blackmail us, Powers said, as we are indeed interested in operating in good faith,” the cable says of Power’s conversation with Liu.

Liu told Reuters on Monday he expected the experts panel would be “renewed according to the normal procedure in the Security Council.”

Meanwhile,  North Korea on Monday fired five short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast — the latest in a series of launches ordered by leader Kim Jong-Un amid rising military tensions.

They came just days after the North test-fired two medium-range missiles in what the UN Security Council described as an “unacceptable” violation of UN resolutions.

Tensions have been soaring on the divided Korean peninsula since the North carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6, followed a month later by a long-range rocket launch that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

The Security Council responded earlier this month by imposing its toughest sanctions on North Korea to date.

In recent weeks Pyongyang has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over continuing large-scale South Korea-US military drills that the North sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

An official with South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the five short-range missiles were launched from near the eastern city of Hamhung, beginning just before 3:20pm (0620 GMT), and landed in the East Sea (Sea of Japan).

He said analysts were still gathering intelligence on the precise missile type.

The North had fired two short-range missiles into the East Sea on March 10, using what state media described as a new high-calibre multiple rocket launcher.

Existing UN sanctions ban North Korea from conducting any ballistic missile test, although short-range launches tend to go unpunished.

Last Friday the North upped the ante by test-firing two medium-range missiles, which were seen as far more provocative given the threat they pose to neighbours like Japan.

They were the first medium-range launches for two years and followed an order from Kim Jong-Un for his military to prepare a series of missile launches as well as an eventual nuclear warhead explosion test.

China, the isolated North’s sole major ally, urged it Monday to refrain from violating UN resolutions and called for calm in both Koreas.

At a meeting with senior aides earlier Monday, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye warned of a “very crucial time” for the Korean peninsula.

“Even after the international community adopted strong sanctions, North Korea continues to attempt reckless provocations as shown through Kim Jong-Un’s recent order,” Park said.

Seoul government officials, meanwhile, said they were fully prepared for the possibility of another North Korean underground nuclear test.

“We believe that a fifth nuclear test can take place right away,” said Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-Hee.

The Defence Ministry also reiterated its assessment that the North was ready to carry out another test as soon as the leadership gave the order.

“In this regard our military, along with intelligence authorities in South Korea and the United States, are thoroughly monitoring such movements,” said ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun.

Analysts with the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University say recent satellite images show what appears to be test-tunnel maintenance activity at North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test complex.

“It is highly likely that site is capable of supporting additional tests at any time,” one of the analysts wrote on the closely-followed website 38 North.

MSN