Why China won’t be sidelined in North Korean affairs

Peter J. Li says China’s dominance in North Korea’s economy and security matters is unparalleled and Kim Jong-un knows it. For its part, Beijing won’t easily give up its influence, given Pyongyang’s strategic importance

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China may have been caught off guard by the Kim-Trump summit, but it has a huge stake in the region’s stability, and its role in matters related to the Korean peninsula remains unparalleled. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Published: 12:31pm, 30 Mar 2018Updated: 4:11pm, 30 Mar 2018

On March 9, US President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell when he accepted Kim Jong-un’s invitation for a summit meeting. The announcement has since brought the North Korean leader to the forefront of international diplomacy.

An inter-Korean summit between Kim and Moon Jae-in is set for April. And while American and North Korean officials are busy working out details of the Trump-Kim summit, Kim’s unannounced visit to China has heightened global interest in the first-ever summit meeting – if it takes place – between a sitting US president and his North Korean counterpart.

More importantly, Kim’s trip to Beijing seems to reject the claim that China has been marginalised in North Korean affairs.

China’s role in matters related to the Korean peninsula is unparalleled. Beijing may have been caught off guard when the Kim-Trump summit was announced, but it is a stakeholder in the region’s stability through the 1961 Mutual Aid and Friendship Cooperation Treaty with North Korea. This treaty, which has an article on military alliance, has served to deter provocations from both sides of the demilitarised zone.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, China’s importance to North Korean security has only increased. It is Pyongyang’s lifeline. As one of the world’s most isolated countries, North Korea uses China as its gateway to the outside world.