China says it seizes metals bound for NKorea

BEIJING – Chinese customs authorities have seized a stash of vanadium, a strategic metal used to strengthen steel, hidden in fruit boxes on a truck bound for North Korea, an official said Tuesday.

Vanadium has defense and nuclear applications — alloys with vanadium are used in missile casings — but it was not clear what the stash would be used for.

The seizure comes as the United States has been rallying international support for strict enforcement of a new U.N. resolution adopted to punish North Korea for its nuclear test on May 25. The sanctions seek to deprive the North of financing and material for its weapons program, and allows inspections of suspect cargo in ports and on the high seas.

The metal was found during a routine check of vehicles at the China-North Korea border on Monday, said a duty officer at the customs department of Dandong city in northeastern Liaoning province.

The officer, who would only give his surname, Chang, said the stash was worth about 200,000 yuan ($29,300).

He refused to provide further details, but the Dandong News Web site posted a photograph of border agents inspecting the seizure, contained in 68 bottles in cardboard boxes. The stash weighed 154 pounds (70 kilograms). The metal appeared to be in granular form.

Yahoo News

It may be true, or it may be just to make China "appear" to be enforcing sanctions on N.K.

I agree that it may be just a smoke screen.

Especially finding something to strengthen steel, that could be used for a million things besides weapons.

Well - nasty is all I can say.

Vanadium is used in a whole lot of different things, hand and machine tools for example are almost always hardened with vanadium.

This is just excessive sanctioning - now the Chinese are playing police too. Even though this was a trivial amount, vanadium is a critical metal - what are you going to make tools out of if you don't have it?

People wonder why North Korea is starving, why they are poor - here is why. Unreasonable sanctions imposed by a despotic cabal of elites who want to disarm it so they can easily invade.

I bet tungsten is high on the list of banned goods also - certainly needed for military applications, but also for light globes and cutting tools and innumerable other domestic applications.

The whole episode with North Korea suffering simply because they dont want to be invaded by the US makes me sick.

Stop punishing a a nation because they want to be free from the NWO!

reply to post by Amagnon


You mean poor poor little kimmy..........

Who tries to start wars with Japan/US.............

Who fires off rockets with the only intent to be a spoiled brat...

Who has fired off 2 nukes.................

He has bropught all his troubles on himself.

Now he has to take responsibility for the utter disaster he has made of his country.

reply to post by Amagnon


Yeah, I agree. Lets leave folks alone, because all we're doing is making them angry so they want to get us later.

The stuff going on these days isn't very believable. I say it's like aliens or something at the top calling the shots. There's just no other way America would do the things that it does.

reply to post by mrmonsoon


Well, we did push him into doing all that stuff by making North Korea desperate enough.

If you made America desperate enough, you would see some crazier stuff.

reply to post by MegaCurious


we pushed him, eh?

So we made him create nuclear weapons........

So we mqade him explode 2 nuclear weapons......

So we made him launch rockets with no further goal to gain but unsettling the world in that area......

So we made him act as a crazed DICKtator.............

So we made him take food ment for his starving people and sell some to other countries and give the rest to his army.....

Clue in, we did nothing, it is all done by little Kimmy and he needs to take responsibility for his actions.

reply to post by mrmonsoon


The leaders of N. Korea, Iran, and others aren't stupid. They see who the US attacks. If you don't have nuclear weapons and you have oil or other natural resources you're on the list of nations that could be invaded. It's obvious at this point the USA is controlled by a rogue somewhat insane element.

reply to post by Floating thru Reality


Put simply, what does N.K. have that we wnat/need???

Nothing.....

reply to post by Amagnon


They are poor and starving because they have an elite who likes them that way. They have been offered over and over a better chance to sit at the table with everyone, and instead they threaten all their neighbours wit nukes.

Excessive sanctions!

One more thing, it may seem sarcastic, bit it is not....

Did China use force in getting this metal headed to N.K.

Remember the sanctions allow N.K. ships to be seardched for illegal materials, but force could not be used to make them allow the search.

Did China follow their own rules or are the rules only for the US and it's allies????

Yeah, China says a lot of stuff. I'm tired of listening to their lies, let's face it, they're allies with NK and supply them with oil, tanks and weaponry.

reply to post by Femacamper


Of course......

We all know this is nothing but a news opportunity for China to try to look like they care about the world and they are acting to rein in N.K.

If China really cared, they would have let us board that N.K. ship with military materials that it protected as it sailed by it's coast....