By Parris H. Chang
The U.S. policy of outsourcing its North Korea policy to China has been a dismal failure. Beijing has very different ideas from Washington on what the Korean Peninsula should look like.
A month after North Korea's failed attempt to launch a satellite, and there are further signs that the country is continuing to make preparations for what would be its third nuclear test. This comes despite repeated warnings against any further provocative actions from the United States, Japan and South Korea. The problem is that, rightly or wrongly, Pyongyang appears to assume that it can count on the support of its traditional ally China. It’s a mindset that means the Kim Jong-un regime is unlikely to be deterred from its current course.
It’s true that China went along with the United States last month in adopting a U.N. Security Council resolution censuring North Korea over its violation of an earlier resolution prohibiting the country from testing long-range missiles. Yet many remain doubtful whether Beijing would ever actually take the kind of substantive action that might hurt its client state.
Why? Essentially because China’s strategic priorities on the Korean Peninsula and in East Asia are simply very different from those of the United States, Japan and South Korea. This was evident at a meeting of the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea in Beijing this month. The three countries agreed during talks that they couldn’t accept North Korean provocations. However, reportedly at China’s request, the joint declaration on “Enhancement of Trilateral Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership” omitted any explicit reference to Pyongyang’s actions.
Read the full 2 page story at The Diplomat