China says Google spreading illegal content and sanctions should not affect North Korea trade

China says, during its bi-weekly Foreign Ministry briefing, Google is spreading illegal vulgar content. It also stresses that the expanded U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea should not affect normal trade or humanitarian aid.

BEIJING, CHINA (JUNE 25, 2009) REUTERS -
China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday (June 25) accused Google's English language search engine of spreading vulgar content that violated the nation's law.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang did not directly answer a question about whether government action was responsible for recent disruptions in access to Google sites from within China.

Qin said various measures taken against Google were in keeping with the law, but did not detail what the measures were or directly comment on Wednesday evening disruptions to Google services in China.

But he made plain the government's anger at the U.S. company.

"I would like to stress that Google China is an internet company providing service in China. Google China should earnestly abide by Chinese laws. The various punitive measures that the relevant government department had applied is strictly in accordance to law," he told journalists at a regular foreign ministry news briefing in Beijing.

Qin also expressed China's wish to see reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, on the fifty-ninth anniversary of North Korea's invasion of the South in 1950.

North Korea has raised tensions in the region in the past months by test-firing missiles, restarting a plant to produce arms-grade plutonium and holding a nuclear test on May 25, which put it closer to having a working nuclear bomb.

North Korea's second nuclear test triggered the U.N. Security Council to adopt tough sanctions to cut off the North's arms trade and the financing for it.

U.S. President Barack Obama renewed sanctions against the reclusive state on Wednesday, declaring that its nuclear program posed a national security risk to the United States.

But the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that the expanded U.N. sanctions imposed on the DPRK should not affect normal trade or humanitarian aid.

"The move United Nations had adopted should not affect the North Korean livelihood and development, North Korea's economic and trade activities, and humanitarian aids to North Korea. All relevant parties had voted for such U.N. resolution. Relevant parties have common ground on the issue. China, as a responsible nation, will strictly carry this out," Qin said.

The war left about two million soldiers and civilians dead or injured in South Korea and more than three million in North Korea.

Ten million people were separated from their Korean family members.

The two Koreas are still technically at war since the war ended in a truce without a peace treaty.

"At present, thick ice has frozen on the Korean peninsula issue, the situation of which resembles the Cold War. Only the heat created by sincerity, mutual trust, and cooperation can melt the ice," he said.

Pyongyang has threatened to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile if the U.N. Security Council did not apologise for punishing it for an April rocket launch, which was widely seen as a disguised missile test.

Experts say the North's defiant moves are aimed at building internal support for reportedly ailing leader Kim Jong-il, who appears to be laying the foundation for his youngest son, Jong-un, to take over.