Shen Dingli writes in Asia Times about China’s relationship with North Korea in the wake of Pyongyang’s threat to quit the Six-Party Talks:
Pyongyang does not have many international allies, and China is the key, if not sole, supplier of essential aid to it in areas ranging from food to energy, medicine to fertilizers, and cash to conventional weapons. But China also has its own reasons for maintaining ties, which include maintaining neighborly relations, the nations’ comradeship in the Cold War era, and lingering geopolitical and strategic considerations.
However, China also has broader interests as a result of its past three decades of reform and opening up. Beijing plans to modernize its economy and society, and this requires a secure and peaceful neighborhood along its entire periphery. The present North Korean stance of seeking security through owning nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles does not agree with Beijing’s.
Beijing has accommodated some of the Pyongyang regime’s basic needs for survival, but North Korea has not repaid China in kind. North Korea assumes that the best way to attain benefits and ensure its survival is to put pressure on Washington through its nuclear and missile programs. This could be why Beijing has failed to dissuade Pyongyang from taking aggressive and provocative moves.
