China attempting to reassert relationship with North Korea: Report

Taipei, June 15 (IANS) Chinese President Xi Jinping’s latest trip to North Korea is an attempt to reassert Beijing as Pyongyang’s “most consequential partner”, a report has detailed.

According to a report in the Taipei Times, North Korea’s increasing alignment with Russia helped sustain Pyongyang’s economy through sanctions pressure, and it steadily reduced Beijing’s leverage over North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“The summit is not simply a bilateral meeting between two neighbours; it is a signal to a wider audience about who is organising political alignment in Asia,” the report noted.

The position of China as North Korea’s indispensable patron is being contested as Kim leveraged his partnership with Russia to secure economic relief and political recognition without needing the Chinese approval.

Xi arrived in North Korea, saying “We must oppose hegemony, authoritarianism and all attempts and conspiracies to revive militarism that endanger regional security and stability,” an editorial published in the Rodong Sinmun ahead of the Chinese leader’s arrival earlier this month, mentioned.

According to the report, the statement targets Japan’s expanding defence posture on the surface, but the framing also encompasses US alliance architecture in East Asia, which is increasingly presented as a unified threat by Beijing, linking Tokyo, Seoul, Washington and Taipei in a single strategic picture.

A new uranium enrichment facility was revealed by North Korea days before the summit, with Kim announcing plans to increase the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.”

“If China tacitly accepts North Korea’s nuclear status as part of the political price for closer ties, it signals that Beijing is willing to accommodate destabilising realities on the ground to preserve bloc cohesion,” said the report.

China wants to show that even a more independent North Korea still finds it beneficial to maintain close ties with Beijing.

Sydney Seiler, a senior advisor at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Korea Chair and former US intelligence official, said that Xi is “hoping to demonstrate a dynamic leading role on the international stage, particularly within the China, Russia, Iran, North Korea grouping of revisionist autocracies, while portraying US influence globally as in decline.”

–IANS

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