A Growing Realization In China That North Korea Is A Threat

The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with Liu Yunshan, a Chinese official, at a military parade in Pyongyang in 2015. Credit Korean Central News Agency

New York Times: North Korea’s Nuclear Arsenal Threatens China’s Path to Power

BEIJING — The two men stood together on the reviewing stand in the North Korean capital: a top official in China’s Communist leadership wearing a tailored business suit and a young dictator in a blue jacket buttoned to his chin.

Liu Yunshan, the visiting Chinese dignitary, and Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, tried to put on a show of friendship, chatting amiably as the cameras rolled, but just as often they stood silent, staring ahead as a military parade passed before them.

Nearly two years have elapsed since that encounter, the last high-level visit between China and North Korea. The stretch of time is a sign of the distance between two nations with a torturous history: one a rising power seeking regional dominance, the other an unpredictable neighbor with its own ambitions.

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WNU Editor: The New York Times has just posted this story .... and it says what I have been saying for a long time .... that in China there are two opinions on North Korea. The ideological class who believe that China should support North Korea, and the growing political and foreign policy establishment who see North Korea as a long term threat to China's aspirations in Asia. At the moment the policy in China is to maintain the status quo .... but after this weekend's North Korean nuclear test I am willing to bet that those who have supported North Korea in the past are finding that their rational and defense of North Korea is falling on deaf ears.