Deng Yuwen, the deputy editor of Study Times, the journal of China’s Central Party School, has added his voice to criticism of North Korea among the influential Chinese elite.
Writing in the UK-based Financial Times, he wrote, “North Korea’s third nuclear test is a good moment for China to re-evaluate its longstanding alliance with the Kim dynasty. For several reasons, Beijing should give up on Pyongyang and press for the reunification of the Korean peninsula.”
Noting that their current, ideologically premised bilateral relationship presents very real dangers for China, that North Korea is no longer a valid Chinese geopolitical ally and that Pyongyang is neither willing nor able to reform the country, he declared, “North Korea is pulling away from Beijing. The Chinese like to view their relationship with Pyongyang through their shared sacrifice during the Korean War instead of reality. They describe it as a ‘friendship sealed in blood’. But North Korea does not feel like this at all towards its neighbour.”
“As early as the 1960s, North Korea rewrote the history of the war,” he pointed out. “To establish the absolute authority of Kim Il Sung, its founder, North Korea removed from historical record the contribution of the hundreds of thousands of sons and daughters of China who sacrificed themselves to beat the UN troops back to the 38th parallel that now divides the peninsula.”
“Kim Il Sung was given all the credit for the offensive,” he went on. “For the North Korean people, shaking off the ‘Chinese bond’ was seen as an expression of independence and autonomy.”
Adding, “It is entirely possible that a nuclear-armed North Korea could try to twist China’s arm if Beijing were to fail to meet its demands or if the US were to signal goodwill towards it,” he therefore concluded, “China should consider abandoning North Korea. The best way of giving up on Pyongyang is to take the initiative to facilitate North Korea’s unification with South Korea. Bringing about the peninsula’s unification would help undermine the strategic alliance between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul; ease the geopolitical pressure on China from northeast Asia; and be helpful to the resolution of the Taiwan question.”
Nevertheless, “The next best thing would be to use China’s influence to cultivate a pro-Beijing government in North Korea, to give it security assurances, push it to give up nuclear weapons and start moving towards the development path of a normal country.”
