More to China-North Korea relations than meets the eye

But it does not apply to North Korea! Since time immemorial, even though China has been going uneasy with North Korea, we can see how North Korea wants more robust ties with China. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wished Xi Jinping “great success” in a congratulatory but comparatively restrained message after the Chinese president cemented his grip on power at a landmark Communist Party Congress.
Moreover, Kim’s note offered Xi “sincere congratulations” after he was formally given a second term as the head of China’s ruling party, state-run KCNA said on Thursday. But the brief, four-sentence missive was a notable contrast to the fulsome terms in which Kim praised the Chinese leader and his country when Xi ascended to power five years ago.
I believe that Kim Jong-un’s expression of congratulatory remark is a conviction that the relations between the two parties and the two countries would develop in the interests of the peoples of the two countries. Despite China’s pressure on North Korea because of the Asean+3 connection wherein Japan and South Korea are affected parties of the North’s unprecedented and aggressive nuclear stance in Asia Pacific region.
Prior to this, ties between the two neighbours have soured in recent years as North Korea staged a series of nuclear tests and missile launches despite opposition by Beijing – its only diplomatic ally and economic lifeline. So North Korea is trying to strategically position itself with China notwithstanding the latter’s different impression of the North’s activities. This is different way from 2012 when Kim described the two nations as “friendly neighbours linked by the same mountain and rivers” and bilateral ties as the “common precious wealth associated with the wisdom and efforts of the leaders of the elder generations”.
As of now, we see that Beijing has been reluctant to impose sanctions harsh enough to rattle North Korea’s political status quo over fears that its collapse could send an influx of refugees across their shared border and place the United States army at China’s doorstep. This is far from the reality of peaceful co-existence that China is also following in their way of diplomacy in Asian context. Or maybe we are only seeing China playing it safe in the contested region.
Jumel Gabilan Estranero