North Korea Reveals Chinese Aid

Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on the 4th, “The People’s Republic of China government recently decided to provide North Korea with gratis aid. Chinese aid encourages the Chosun (North Korea) people to construct a strong and prosperous state and stimulates their mentality for [revolutionary] struggles.”

This open and international reporting of Chinese aid should be seen as a message to the U.S. and South Korea, with whom North Korea has strained relations and against whom it has emphasized a confrontational stance. The aid has been revealed while Pyongyang has been driving inter-Korean relations into a tense standoff by mentioning the possibility of a “military collision,” and has been conducting preparations for a possible Taepodong-2 missile launch. Experts say the message is that it can overcome any economic and security problems, which are being caused by its aggressive policy choices, through its long-standing friendship with China.

The issue of free aid from China was said to have been discussed between Kim Jong Il and Wang Jiarui, leader of the International Department of the CPC (People’s Republic of China) Central Committee, when Wang visited Pyongyang in late January. The exact timing and the scale of the aid have not been reported. However, the scale is rumored to be between 20 and 40 million dollars, while the timing is presumed to be based around the proposed visit of Kim Jong Il to China.

President Hu sent a letter to Pyongyang with Wang, inviting Kim to China to commemorate their friendship, and Kim has apparently accepted it. If Kim’s visit to Beijing is completed successfully, it is predicted that Hu will visit Pyongyang in return, as international decorum tends to prescribe.

Chinese aid has helped North Korean development before, of course. The Daean Friendship Glass Factory, which Hu inspected during his visit to North Korea in 2005, was constructed with 24 million dollars of Chinese bilateral aid, and at the same time as CPC Central Committee Political Bureau member Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang in June of last year, China provided 5,000 tons of jet fuel and 100 million Yuan in cash: a total of roughly 1.5 million U.S. dollars.

Professor from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Kang Jun Young said to Daily NK, “According to precedent from previous visits by Kim Jong Il to China, around which China brought aid to North Korea, there seems to be a hidden promise about aid included in the latest visit by Wang.

Professor Kang interprets that China may be intending to use this opportunity to win North Korea over to its side, as North Korea has been demanding South Korea shift its policy and the Obama administration does not seem to want to prioritize the North Korean nuclear issue.

Meanwhile, “North Korea cannot make a concession to South Korea and figures out that there are no special gains to be had from the U.S. just now. Therefore, it has selected to try and get practical gains from China.”

Korea Institute for National Unification researcher Choi Chun Heum also expanded, “The fact that China has aided North Korea to the tune of around 20 to 40 million dollars so far has been officially reported, but experts believe the real scale of aid may be triple that.”

Choi also suggested that Chinese aid is a form of a recommendation; that North Korea should follow the direction of China as soon as it has stabilized its domestic situation.