Posted on 04/24/2017 1:12:36 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
NK state media's broadside won’t impact China policy
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published a commentary on Friday criticizing China, although without naming it, for "dancing to the tune of" the US' North Korean policy. Some emotional statements in the article expressed Pyongyang's determination to go down the nuclear path. The most provocative sentence that attracted worldwide attention in the commentary is that "if the country keeps applying economic sanctions on the DPRK … it should get itself ready to face the catastrophic consequences in the relations with the DPRK."
This is the second time North Korean state media has criticized Beijing without mentioning names. On February 23, KCNA published a critique accusing China's "mean behavior" for "totally blocking foreign trade related to the improvement of people's living standard," which is "tantamount to the enemies' moves to bring down the social system in the DPRK."
KCNA's latest broadside followed the same pattern of its critique two months ago, which not only vented its dissatisfaction toward Beijing's action of imposing sanctions against Pyongyang by following the UN Security Council resolution, but also conveyed North Korea's will to keep going its own way on nuclear and missile tests. It attempted to pile pressure on China, trying to influence Beijing's future attitude toward Pyongyang's next nuclear activity.
However, such a move will not have any effect apart from further isolating Pyongyang itself. If North Korea conducts its sixth nuclear test, Beijing will undoubtedly support the UN in adopting tougher sanctions against it, including oil embargo, although its sanctions will not target the North Korean people or regime. As long as Pyongyang stops its nuclear program, the Sino-North Korean relationship can be restored to its normal status.
No matter how many articles KCNA publishes, whatever future measures North Korea takes, Beijing's stance will not be affected.
Perhaps Pyongyang needs to revise its understanding that North Korea is a sentinel and on guard duty for China, therefore, whatever it does, Beijing has no other alternative except to endorse Pyongyang. If North Korea really thinks this, it is making a mistake. Its nuclear program has severely impacted peace and stability in Northeast Asia, jeopardizing China's major national interests. Preventing Pyongyang from continuing to develop nuclear weapons has already become Beijing's priority in its Northeast Asian policies.
The fundamental problem in the North Korean nuclear crisis is the contradictions between North Korea and the US. China does not have the key to resolve it. Beijing has made its contributions by strictly following the resolutions of the UN Security Council. Washington and Seoul must also make joint efforts with China to let Pyongyang see that it can still safeguard its country and regime without nuclear weapons.
Although North Korea is subject to international sanctions, Pyongyang is not the only one to have caused tension on the Korean Peninsula. Washington should also reflect on its wrongdoing. US President Donald Trump always said that the White House's previous North Korean policy was a mistake, but what he is doing now is no different from his predecessor Barack Obama. Trump won't reach the right destination if he only changes a pair of shoes while continuing along the same old path.
P!
China could have resolved this situation more than several decades ago but chose not to resolve. I support President Trump and whatever his “resolve” turns out to be. As Hamlet said, “To be or not to be, that is the question.”
If Korea was unified and free China would have untold billions in trade going back and forth over that border. This would benefit china economically a great deal.
On the other hand, China’s reason for not wanting a unified and free Korea on it’s border is the damage to China’s internal political narrative: Everyone would see a working and prosperous democracy built out in the failed north in a matter of a few years.
They should consider the problem with the situation now: they share their border with a failed communist dictatorship. A dictatorship which is a constant reminder all the really horrible aspects totalitarianism. A reminder of what China was and still is in many ways.
Various forms of insanity revel in the fact they ARE insane, and they enjoy their brand of craziness. The North Korean Fatboi doe NOT have a sense of his own limitations, which boil down to the reality that he could not sustain a hostile intent against ANYBODY for more than a few days or weeks before his resources and will would be entirely exhausted.
So far the Chinese have allowed the North Korean regime pretty much free rein, because it suited their purposes, that it kept the Western nations and the UN (with whom the North Koreans are actually at war with, not the United States) occupied with “suppressing” and “containing” the North Koreans, while China could pursue adventures elsewhere.
But the North Koreans have crossed a line, and the threat now has doubled back on China. If nothing else, China does not want a flood of refugees crossing the Yalu River into their country, which has trouble containing their own millions of less than fully utilized native population.
I bet the Chinese would soon build a border wall without any of the considerations that constrain the United States, and enforce it pretty firmly.
I bet the Chinese would soon build a border wall without any of the considerations that constrain the United States, and enforce it pretty firmly.
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Yep. And the Chinese demonstrated long ago that they know how to build a wall!
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