China's Nuclear Exports and Assistance to East Asia

China's Nuclear Exports and Assistance to East Asia

China has conducted some nuclear trade with its neighbors in East Asia, though this trade has not been nearly as extensive, or as important, from a nonproliferation standpoint, as its trade with South Asia and the Middle East. The most important proliferation concern in East Asia is North Korea, because of this China has been cautious in its nuclear dealings with North Korea. China and North Korea have engaged in some nuclear cooperation, but even as early as the 1960s China refused to assist North Korea in developing a nuclear weapon. In 1987 China pulled out its nuclear technicians from North Korea when it discovered that North Korea was aggressively pursuing a nuclear weapon program and in 1989 both the Soviet Union and China refused to assist North Korea in developing a nuclear reprocessing facility. [Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., Jane’s Intelligence Review, September 1991, p.405-406; Kim Hak-kyong, Korea Herald (Seoul), 4 June 1989, p.2, 5; Choson Ilbo (Soul), 8 September 1992, p.2; Yonhap (Seoul), 13 April 1993. ]

For additional information on open-source reports of Chinese exports and assistance, please consult the CNS Nuclear Abstracts database.

CHINA'S NUCLEAR EXPORTS AND ASSISTANCE TO EAST ASIA

COUNTRY	REPORTED AREA OF CHINESE NUCLEAR ASSISTANCE
JAPAN	Uranium Concentrate (U3O8) (Yellowcake) --250 short tons to Tokyo Electric Power (1992)
NORTH KOREA	Signed protocols on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy (1959) Assisted in uranium survey in North Korea (1964) Expertise (until 1987) Exported tributyl phosphate (TBP) to North Korea (2002): though a multiple-use chemical, TBP is a key component of the "purex" process of separating plutonium from depleted uranium fuel rods.
SOUTH KOREA	Heavy Water
TAIWAN	Uranium Concentrate (U3O8) (Yellowcake)
THAILAND	Research Reactors

[CHINA'S NUCLEAR EXPORTS]

[CHINA'S MISSILE EXPORTS AND ASSISTANCE TO EAST ASIA]

For more on China and nuclear nonproliferation issues on the Korean Peninsula, see:

[CHINA AND THE NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR ISSUE]

This material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2007 by MIIS.