Beijing’s Absence Conspicuous as the Two Koreas Engage in Tense Negotiations

6 minute read

As the two Koreas, which have traded artillery fire and very loud K-pop over their border in recent days, continue slogging through talks to de-escalate tensions, one traditional actor is missing: China. Beijing used to hover noisily around such talks. But as the negotiations, which are now routinely being described as “marathon,” drag on into their third day, China — North Korea’s historic brother-in-arms and South Korea’s largest trading partner — has resorted to quietly sniping on the sidelines.

“As North Korea’s only ally and South Korea’s new best friend in the region, China has a natural role,” says John Delury, an associate professor at Yonsei University in Seoul and an avid watcher of both China and the Koreas. “Beijing has been noticeably, almost painfully, absent from the escalating tension on the Korean peninsula in the last couple weeks. Other than anodyne calls for everybody to exercise self-restraint, Beijing has had nothing to say or do to improve the situation.”

Despite a truce in 1953, the two Koreas are still technically at war, and the latest frictions were catalyzed earlier this month by the maiming of South Korean troops in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) border area by land mines presumed to have been laid by the North Koreans. As talks ground on, South Korean President Park Geun-hye demanded an apology for the attack — for which the North Koreans deny responsibility — even as the South kept up its psychological warfare against its cloistered neighbor by broadcasting news and pop music from loudspeakers on the border. North Korea has responded to the aural assault by firing over the border, prompting South Korea to respond with its artillery. The South Korean Defense Ministry says that North Korean troops are amassing at the border and that North Korean submarines have left their normal base.

The relationship between China and North Korea used to be famously close, in Mao Zedong’s words, as “lips and teeth.” China sent waves of its troops to fight on the North Korean side during the Korean War; Mao’s own son died during the conflict. One of the members of China’s current Standing Committee, the country’s seven-man leadership clique, was educated at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, where he studied — as hard as it may be to believe — economics.

PHOTOS: This is how North Korea's government wants you to see Kim Jong Un

KCNA picture shows North Korean leader Kim and his wife Ri during a visit to Unit 1017 of KPA Air and Anti-Air Force
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (3rd L) and his wife Ri Sol-ju (2nd L) look on during a visit to Unit 1017 of the Korean People's Army (KPA) Air and Anti-Air Force, honoured with the title of O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment, in this undated picture released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 21, 2013. KCNA—REUTERS
NKOREA-POLITICS-KIM
This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 7, 2014 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) being celebrated by soldiers as he inspects the defense detachment on Ung Islet, defending an outpost in the East Sea of Korea. KNS—AFP/Getty Images
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits Mangyongdae Revolutionary School
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits Mangyongdae Revolutionary School on the occasion of the 68th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Children's Union (KCU) in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang June 7, 2014. KCNA—REUTERS
KCNA handout shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looking through a pair of binoculars during inspection of Hwa Islet Defence Detachment off east coast of Korean peninsula
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks through a pair of binoculars during an inspection of the Hwa Islet Defence Detachment standing guard over a forward post off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on July 1, 2014. KCNA—REUTERS
NKOREA-HOSPITAL-CHILDREN
This undated picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 19, 2014 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) meeting with children at a baby home and orphanage as he visits the Taesongsan General Hospital in Pyongyang. KNS—AFP/Getty Images
NKOREA-KIM
This photo taken on July 27, 2014 and released on July 28, 2014 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows service personnel of North Korean Army salute to a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un clad in marshal unform at the plaza of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, the 61st anniversary of the victory of the Fatherland Liberation War. KCNA—AFP/Getty Images
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un smokes a cigarette as he gives guidance on the development of Ssuk Islet
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un smokes a cigarette as he gives guidance on the development of Ssuk Islet in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang June 2, 2014. KCNA—REUTERS
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits a construction site of a resort for scientists
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) visits a construction site of a resort for scientists in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang May 29, 2014. KCNA—REUTERS
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un sits in a wooden boat with other soldiers as he visits military units on islands in the most southwest of Pyongyang
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) sits in a wooden boat with other soldiers as he visits military units on islands in the most southwest of Pyongyang in this picture released by the North's official KCNA news agency in Pyongyang August 19, 2012. KCNA—REUTERS
North Korea :  Kim Jong Un
The photo provided by KCNA on Aug. 15, 2014 shows top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un (C) guides the test-fire of a "Korean style ultra-precision high-performance tactical rocket" on the occasion of the 69th anniversary of the nation's liberation. KCNA—XIHNUA/SIPA
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the newly built ski resort in the Masik Pass region
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the newly built ski resort in the Masik Pass region, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on December 31, 2013. North Korea's state-run television KRT said Kim was satisfied with the ski resort after looking around its facilities which included a hotel, ski service and rental shops. KCNA—Reuters
NK rocket firing drill
A picture released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling North Korean Workers Party released on 30 June 2014, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observing a tactical rocket firing drill of the North's Strategic Force at an unidentified place. Rodong Sinmun—EPA

But China-DPRK relations, already cooling during the rule of Kim Jong Il, have turned even frostier under the leadership of his son, Kim Jong Un. Chinese President Xi Jinping, himself in office since late 2012, has made it clear he believes North Korea should abandon nuclear weapons — a position not appreciated by Pyongyang. One Chinese expert on North Korea — who wishes to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the foreign media — says that he has heard that Chinese leaders have tried in recent months to arrange high-level meetings in Pyongyang but have been rebuffed. “The Chinese do not like to kowtow to a strange man,” he says, referring to Kim Jong Un. “We are losing our patience.”

Earlier this year in Dandong, a Chinese border town with North Korea, businessmen complained about how trade had dried up, ever since Kim’s uncle Jang Sung Taek, who was a leading proponent of economic reform, was executed in 2013. A fancy new bridge designed to facilitate economic activity between the two countries — paid for, naturally, by China — appeared empty and forlorn. Rather than tales of business deals, locals talked about the latest North Korean soldier who had slipped across the border and robbed Chinese at gunpoint. “Business is getting worse and worse,” said one Dandong businessman who has been to Pyongyang dozens of times. “No one knows when it’s going to get better.”

Meanwhile, on Aug. 24, the Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party–affiliated daily, published an editorial warning that forces on the Korean peninsula might be trying to “strip China of its strength and geopolitical advantages.”

China, under President Xi, has spent months building up to a blowout military parade scheduled for Sept. 3 in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. South Korean President Park, representing a country that was brutally colonized by Japan, is expected to be in Beijing at that time, although it’s not clear whether she will attend the military festivities. There is, however, no word on the planned whereabouts of the North Korean leader. “Kim’s recent actions are very clearly designed to drive a wedge between Seoul and Beijing,” says Zhu Feng, a foreign policy expert at Nanjing University. “There is a lot of disappointment and dissatisfaction on both sides [in China and North Korea].”

The Global Times op-ed speculated that the latest Korean hostilities, some of the worst since the North sank a South Korean navy ship in 2010, could be aimed at forcing Park to cancel her trip to Beijing, at a time when China hopes to show off new military hardware and flex its geopolitical muscle. “Beijing will not be led by the nose,” went the editorial, “and there is no force on the [Korean] Peninsula that could easily maneuver China.”

For all its expanding military arsenal and economic influence abroad, China’s diplomatic efforts have been less successful. “The whole situation [of China’s absence in the latest Korea talks] speaks to the limits of Beijing’s diplomatic clout, even with its neighbors, despite all the talk of China’s rise,” says Yonsei University’s Delury.

Instead, he says, “in a situation like this of real crisis, the United States is the key third party as far as both Koreas are concerned. Indeed, the North Korean Foreign Ministry went so far as to obliquely chide Beijing for telling them to have restraint, in the face of large-scale military exercises by South Korea and the U.S. I would not go so far as to say this is any kind of tipping point in China–North Korea relations, but rather, it underlines how weak the ties are between Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un.”

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