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BEIJING: Nuclear-armed North Korea poses an “overt threat, a declared threat to the world”, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Beijing Wednesday following Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test earlier this month.

Washington is pushing for a strong United Nations response to the North’s latest atomic blast — which Pyongyang said was a miniaturised hydrogen bomb, a claim largely dismissed by experts — with enhanced sanctions.

North Korea leaders should face trial for crimes against humanity: UN

But China, North Korea’s chief diplomatic protector and economic benefactor, is reluctant, despite the pair’s ties becoming strained in recent years as Beijing’s patience wears thin with its neighbour’s ambitions for nuclear weapons.

The two powers — both permanent members of the UN Security Council — had agreed to mount an “accelerated effort” to try to resolve their differences on a new resolution, Kerry told a joint press conference with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

But he acknowledged that they had not agreed on the “parameters of exactly what it would do or say”.

“The United States will do what is necessary to protect the people of our country and our friends and allies in the world,” Kerry added.

Wang said that China also backed a new Security Council motion, but added that it “should not provoke new tension in the situation”.

Beijing’s ties with Pyongyang were forged in the blood of the Korean War and analysts say its leverage is mitigated by its overriding fear of a North Korean collapse and the prospect of a reunified, US-allied Korea directly on its border.

China has a “particular ability… to be able to help us significantly to resolve this threat”, Kerry said, noting that as the North’s main provider of trade and aid it could apply pressure through “movements of ships” and “various resource exchanges”.

Wang said he rejected “all groundless speculation or distortion of China’s position”, re-iterating that Beijing was committed to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

China regularly calls for calm in the region, and for the resumption of the long-stalled six-party talks, which bring together the two Koreas, China, the US, Russia and Japan.

Dealing with nuclear North Korea

“The goal is to take the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula back to the right track of negotiation”, Wang said.

“Sanctions are not an end in themselves.”

As Kerry arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, the state-run China Daily ran an article headlined: “Experts have low hopes for Kerry’s China trip.”

Before Wednesday’s meeting, the official news agency Xinhua issued a commentary blaming the US’s “uncompromising hostility” and “Cold War mentality” for the situation on the Korean peninsula.

Washington’s actions, such as flying a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber close to the inter-Korean boder, were heightening the North’s “sense of insecurity and thus pushing it towards reckless nuclear brinkmanship”, it added.

Wang and Kerry’s discussions — which lasted for nearly five hours — also addressed the strategically vital South China Sea, where Beijing has built up artificial islands capable of hosting military facilities in disputed waters.

China asserts ownership over virtually the entire area, putting it at odds with regional neighbours the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Washington has called Beijing’s land reclamation projects a threat to freedom of navigation and has sent military ships and planes to demonstrate that it will not accept a change to the status quo.

The two countries must avoid “a destabilising cycle of mistrust or escalation” in the area, Kerry said, adding that the two sides had agreed to explore the possibility of a “diplomatic way forward” on the issue.

The Supreme Court has refused to hear a petition concerning the Department of Homeland Security’s secretive internet and cellphone killswitch program.

On Monday the Supreme Court declined to hear a petition from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) that sought to force the Department of Homeland Security to release details of a secret “killswitch” protocol to shut down cellphone and internet service during emergencies.

EPIC has been fighting since 2011 to release the details of the program, which is known as Standard Operating Procedure 303. EPIC writes, “On March 9, 2006, the National Communications System (‘NCS’) approved SOP 303, however it was never released to the public. This secret document codifies a ‘shutdown and restoration process for use by commercial and private wireless networks during national crisis.’”

EPIC continues, “In a 2006-2007 Report, the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (‘NSTAC’) indicated that SOP 303 would be implemented under the coordination of the National Coordinating Center (‘NCC’) of the NSTAC, while the decision to shut down service would be made by state Homeland Security Advisors or individuals at DHS. The report indicates that NCC will determine if a shutdown is necessary based on a ‘series of questions.’”

Despite EPIC’s defeat at the hands of the Supreme Court, the four-year court battle yielded a heavily redacted copy of Standard Operating Procedure 303.

The fight for transparency regarding SOP 303 began shortly after a Bay Area Rapid Transit (“BART”) officer in San Francisco shot and killed a homeless man named Charles Hill on July 3, 2011. The shooting sparked massive protests against BART throughout July and August 2011. During one of these protests, BART officials cut off cell phone service inside four transit stations for three hours. This kept anyone on the station platform from sending or receiving phone calls, messages, or other data.

In July 2012, EPIC submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the DHS seeking the full text of Standard Operating Procedure 303; the full text of the predetermined “series of questions” that determines if a shutdown is necessary; and any executing protocols related to the implementation of Standard Operating Procedure 303, distributed to DHS, other federal agencies, or private companies.

After the DHS fought the FOIA releases, a district court in Washington, D.C. ruled in EPIC’s favor, but that ruling was later overturned by the court of appeals. The appeals court told EPIC the government was free to withhold details of the plan under the Freedom of Information Act because the information might “endanger” the public. In 2015, the digital rights group asked the Supreme Court to review the ruling by the federal appeals court.

With the Supreme Court’s refusal to address EPIC’s petition, the issue seems to have reached a dead-end. The American people are (once again) left in the dark regarding the inner-workings of another dangerous and intrusive government program. It is only through the hard work of activists and groups like EPIC that we are at least aware of the existence of this program — but knowing bits and pieces about the protocol is not enough. In order to combat such heavy-handed measures, we need to have access to the government’s own documents. Hopefully, there is already a whistleblower preparing to release these details.

What we do with the information we do have is up to each of us as individuals. We can sit back and watch the United States further devolve into a militarized police and surveillance state — or we can spread this information, get involved locally, and create new systems outside of the current paradigm of control and exploitation.

Written by Derrick Broze of www.theantimedia.org