After Kim’s visit to China it is expected that political tension will be decreased in the region. But North Korean leader’s first and secret China trip mostly aimed at rebalancing mutual relations. Political analyst Maria Rosaria Coduti stated for Eurasia Diary that this meeting was important because on the one hand put China at the center of the Korean peninsula affairs again; on the other, strengthened the leverage of Kim Jong Un in future talks with the US. 

 

 

Despite in the last years we have often heard of strains and frictions between Beijing and Pyongyang, the fundamental importance of their relations has never been questioned because is based on strategic interests that both stated need to preserve. China is North Korea’s economic patron while North Korea is China’s buffer against the US troops stationed in South Korea. 

 

Furthermore, Kim Jong Un knows that Xi Jinping will never let his regime collapse otherwise the region will be destabilized and the Korean peninsula reunified by South Korea and the US. So this meeting has been a strong signal to the international community that the relations are in good health, that the two old allies continue to share strategic interests and objectives and that China will keep supporting North Korea.

 

As for denuclearization process of the region Maria Coduti said that during Kim’s meeting with Xi Jinping, the latter expressed his support for denuclearization and welcomed the upcoming North Korea-US summit. China has always called for a diplomatic and multilateral resolution of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula. 

 

The North Korean leader affirmed that “The issue of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be resolved, if South Korea and the United States respond to our efforts with goodwill, create an atmosphere of peace and stability while taking progressive and synchronous measures for the realization of peace.” What Kim Jong Un has in mind is not a “complete, variable and irreversible” dismantlement of its nuclear arsenal, that is what the US is asking.

 

North Korea will freeze the development of its nuclear and missile programs only if the fundamental treats to its regime survival - US troops in South Korea, absence of a peace treaty to end the Korean War - are eliminated. And this North Korea’s idea of denuclearization fits China interests as well.

 

Farid Hasanov

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