China (and others) on North Korea

[Randy W]

Ongoing topic - click for Most Recent Post

 

from the Global Times

Political stability in N.Korea benefits all

Television monitors displayed at the Yongsan electronic market in Seoul Friday show Jang Song-thaek’s last appearance at the tribunal before his execution. Photo: AFP

Quote

It is right for China to choose not to interfere in North Korea's internal affairs, especially those concerning Pyongyang's political power geometry. But as Chinese society has long been diversified, it is impossible for the Chinese government to unify social attitudes toward North Korea.

The majority of the public here holds a negative attitude toward the recent events in Pyongyang. This may impose some restrictions on Sino-North Korean ties. Chinese aid to North Korea may face more questioning, and grass-roots interaction may lose some momentum.

The two countries, as friendly neighbors, now face some new challenges. Understandably, Pyongyang will be sensitive to voices from the Chinese public, and thus urge Beijing to impose more regulations on public opinion. Pyongyang also hopes to gain absolute support from Beijing. Developing friendly relations is strategically important for both sides, but frictions do exist, especially over the North Korea nuclear issue.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Guest ExChinaExpat]

 

... Understandably, Pyongyang will be sensitive to voices from the Chinese public, and thus urge Beijing to impose more regulations on public opinion.

 

 

Regulate public opinion? Well, I guess if you censor the Internet, put people who don't agree with CCP in jail, or take a lesson from the Great Leader and kill your family when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

[Randy W]

An up coming birthday - "He's my friend!"

[Randy W]

More news on North Korea

 

Two Koreas meeting ends with rare agreement

 

The apparent concession and the commitment to continue what has been the highest-level official contact between the two countries since 2007, will fuel hopes that they might be entering a period of genuinely constructive engagement.

"Agreement was reached today after North Korea accepted our position that the family reunion event is important ... as the first step to build trust" Kim said.

 

[Doug]

Jiangsu Province ladies handball team got a new coach this year. The former North Korean national team coach..... he brought his entire family, including parents, and intends to stay forever, coach or not coach. haha

[Randy W]

 

Jiangsu Province ladies handball team got a new coach this year. The former North Korean national team coach..... he brought his entire family, including parents, and intends to stay forever, coach or not coach. haha

 

 

Wow - that's impressive!

[Randy W]

China plans for North Korean regime collapse leaked

 

 

Documents drawn up by planners from China’s People’s Liberation Army that were leaked to Japanese media include proposals for detaining key North Korean leaders and the creation of refugee camps on the Chinese side of the frontier in the event of an outbreak of civil unrest in the secretive state.

 

The report calls for stepping up monitoring of China’s 879-mile border with North Korea.

 

. . .

 

The Chinese authorities intend to question new arrivals, determine their identities and turn away any who are considered dangerous or undesirable.

 

“This only underlines that all the countries with a stake in the stability of north-east Asia need to be talking to each other,” Jun Okumura, a visiting scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, told The Telegraph.

 

“What we have learned from the collapse of other dictatorships – the Soviet Union, Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya – is that the more totalitarian the regime, the harder and faster they fall,” he added.

 

[Randy W]

. . . and in the Global Times today . . .

 

China-NK ‘alliance’ remains ambiguous

 

After the Cold War, the outside world believed that North Korea's territory and sovereignty didn't face a direct threat, so it had every reason to use its limited capital to develop economy and improve people's livelihoods.

But Pyongyang's political system had its own thoughts, and it realized that the threat from the hard-line US might lead to a domestic coup. Therefore, Pyongyang saw owning nuclear weapons as its only choice for survival.

At the same time, China has been rising rapidly thanks to its reform and opening-up, and has tried to maintain a good relationship with neighboring countries and major powers. But North Korea's nuclear plan not only worsened China's peripheral environment and helped the US' pivot to Asia strategy, it also offered excuses for the nuclear illusions of Japan and South Korea.

Any Chinese tolerance or understanding of North Korea in this regard will lead to the enhancement of US-South Korean alliance and US-Japan alliance. An emphasis on China-North Korea "alliance" is binding China's future with dangerous responsibilities.

The "alliance" hasn't dissolved given the continuation of the Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty. But in reality, it has been stuck in a dilemma as the basis for the "alliance" is weakening. Remaining ambiguous is the best approach for the two, considering the overall situation.

The ambiguity will continue. China is far stronger than North Korea. Although the treaty regulates obligations of mutual aid, these obligations shared by the two are not equal. Only by realizing this can the two walk out of the current dilemma.

As for the North Korean nuclear issue, North Korea can easily make a bargain, as Beijing can satisfy Pyongyang's demands, but cannot bear its deviations.

The author is director of the Department of International Political Science, College of Political Science and Public Management, Yanbian University. The article is an excerpt of his speech at the Tumen River Forum held by Yanbian

 

[Randy W]

Some interesting stories of life along the border in the Global Times

 

Family ties endure across China-North Korea border

 

http://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2011/6338897c-fb6d-4585-83f6-bcf13f7c7428.jpeg

 

Stories like Zheng's are hardly new. Cross-border family ties go back decades.

Many people of Korean ethnicity in Yanbian went to North Korea during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), when inspections at the border were not particularly strict. During the early years of the Kim Il-sung era, living conditions in North Korea were somewhat better than in China.

 

. . .

 

In August, a group of North Korean defectors were detained on the Chinese border with Laos, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported. Rather than returning them to North Korea, Chinese authorities returned them to the South, a move that was seen by some strategists as a shift in Beijing's policy toward Pyongyang. Jin Qiangyi believes it is because China is attaching more importance to its international image.

"China worries that the North Korean defector issue may affect its image on the global stage. Its consideration of relations with North Korea comes second," Jin said.

 

[Doug]

Correction, the new coach really is from South Korea, which is like way better

[Randy W]

. . . and from the Chinese Foreign Ministry TODAY . . .

 

China opposes North Korea's H-bomb test

2016-01-06 08:08:25 GMT2016-01-06 16:08:25(Beijing Time) SINA.com

China "firmly" opposes the latest nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to a statement on Wednesday from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The ministry made the statement after the DPRK announced Wednesday that it has successfully carried out its first hydrogen bomb test.

"China is steadfast in its position that the Korean Peninsula should be denuclearized and nuclear proliferation be prevented to maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced at a press briefing.

"We strongly urge the DPRK to honor its commitment to denuclearization, and to cease any action that may deteriorate the situation," Hua said.

The peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia meet the common interests of all concerned, Hua quoted the statement as saying.

China is determined to advance denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, and settle the nuclear issue through the six-party talks, Hua said.

"The first H-bomb test was successfully conducted in the DPRK at 10:00 (0130 GMT) on Wednesday," the DPRK's state media KCNA said.

The DPRK's previous nuclear tests occurred in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

 

 

[Greg.D.]

Other than maybe Dennis Rodman, the whole world is opposed.

[Allon]

The bomb was really a dud. The high explosive and first bomb went off but the triggers that fuse (as in fusion) or implode the bomb must be in complete synch for it to work as a hydrogen or fusion bomb. It didn't.

 

There was a quake at the same time in that area that caused evacuations in China. And China is not happy. They registered a protest to NK. Security Council meets today to discuss.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35240012

[Randy W]

North Korea's scientists are congratulated for
successfully launching a long-range rocket on February 7.

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Show of power: US stealth jets fly over South Korea amid nuclear standoff with Pyongyang

 

Four US F-22 stealth fighters flew over South Korea on Wednesday in a clear show of power against North Korea, a day after South Korea’s president warned of the North’s collapse amid a festering standoff over its nuclear and missile ambitions.

 

The high-tech planes capable of sneaking past radar undetected were escorted by other US and South Korean fighter jets.

 

Pyongyang will likely view the arrival of the planes as a threat as they are an apparent display of US airpower aimed at showing what the United States can do to defend its ally South Korea from potential aggression from North Korea.

 

. . .

 

Foreign analysts say the North’s rocket launch and nuclear test put the country further along it its quest for a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the US mainland.

 

South Korea’s president on Tuesday warned North Korea faces collapse if it doesn’t abandon its nuclear bomb program, an unusually strong broadside that is certain to infuriate Pyongyang.

 

Edited February 17, 2016 by Randy W (see edit history)