There was an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago about sanctions on North Korea. China routinely avoids enforcing sanctions against places like Iran and North Korea, while voting for them in the U.N. or in separate negotiations.
The article says: "China’s Limac Corp. and North Korea’s Ryonbong General Corp. set up a joint venture in 2008 to mine tantalum, niobium and zirconium, minerals that are useful in making phones and computers but also nuclear reactors and missiles.".
China writes this off because the joint venture didn't do very much mining. In this kind of mining, it doesn't take much. These metals are good for making alloys that are much stronger than the components by themselves, so-called "superalloys".
Aside from how much it might take to make a good warhead, just the setting up of this type of agreement shows how quick the Chinese are to violate a sanctions protocol, even before the ink is dry. Next time we hear that the Chinese are supporting sanctions on North Korea for their wild shenanigans, try to remember that the likely outcome of those sanctions will be nothing. If we think the Chinese will help get the North under control - in exchange for better trade considerations for China - take that with a grain of salt. We may be trading better trade agreemeets with China for next to nothing.
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