It’s a sad, sad world we live in when even communist dictatorships can’t trust one another.
The JoongAng Ilbo reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il complained to a visiting American dignitary earlier this month that he “could not trust the Chinese.” During the long meeting with the American, which was held in extreme secrecy, Kim bitched that China “wasn’t helping us at the decisive moment.”
Good friends are hard to find, I guess. Especially when you’re North Korea.
Kim’s disappointment with the Chinese was expressed when Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Hui Liangyu visited Pyongyang on July 10. Kim reportedly refused to meet either of them, and on July 16, China voted for a UN resolution placing sanctions on North Korea.
No more “lips and teeth” for China and North Korea, it would seem. And one foreign policy expert said the United States would try to widen this fissure in Sino-North Korean relations to strengthen its influence over Pyongyang.
The JoongAng reported that this discord began after a Macao bank froze 2.4 million U.S. dollars in North Korean assets. Kim appealed for help against U.S. sanctions, even visiting Beijing in January to plead with Chinese President Hu Jintao for assistance. Instead, what it got was Chinese police arresting Kim’s chief of staff Kang Sang-chun as he was visiting Macao to check on Kim’s money.
A source noted that China, which has for all intents and purposes adopted the capitalist market economy, had to worry about the effect it would have on the country’s credit rating if it appeared Beijing was covering up for North Korean counterfeiting activities.
Kim is also reportedly unhappy that a massive economic aid package that was unofficially discussed when the North Korean leader went to Beijing in January has yet to materialize. The Chinese apparently offered some 5 billion yuan in cash; support for the construction of port facilities, hotels and bridges in Shinuiju; double tracking for the Shinuiju-Pyongyang railroad line and the building of a highway from Shinuiju to Hyangsan. Believing he’d receive such support, Kim announced the next month a three-year economic plan. North Korean officials are now reportedly bitching that the Chinese are all talk, and that their support has been lacking.
China, of course, has its own gripes about their North Korean allies. Chief among them, oddly enough, would be Pyongyang’s propensity for reckless behavior. China hopes to become the military and economic leader of the region, but North Korea’s nuclear program and missile tests are providing the United States with good justification for intervention in Northeast Asia. They are also providing justification for Japanese rearmament.
Accordingly, the JoongAng believes something of a Sino-American honeymoon is afoot. At the G-8 summit, President Bush expressed thanks to Chinese President Hu Jintao for his leadership, Central Military Commission vice-chairman Guo Boxiong, the No. 2 man in the Chinese military, visited Washington at the invitation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday.
The JoongAng summarized:
Sphere: Related ContentWith cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan in tangles, cooperation between North Korea, China and Russia is also revealing fundamental yet subtle changes in accordance with strategic interests. The world is watching how Kim jong-il will cope with these trends in the international situation.
12 Comments
This is all acting. The alliance, more like servitude, between NK and China is stronger than ever.
KJI is a China’s loyal dog. He will carry out whatever is told, including this tidbit about getting angry at China.
All acting. His fingers are on “Shoot” button for missiles and he is waiting for China’s orders.
If China does not get Taiwan soon, the order will come.
Baduk mah man, you have GOT to start sharing the strong hallucinogens you’re on with the rest of us — looks like they are awesomely potent…
This is fascinating, but naturally it invites questions. Who could the “visiting American dignitary” have been to whom Kim, of all people, would have entrusted his private thoughts? And if any American did enjoy such access, would he be likely to blab so quickly? Whence came the astonishing information that Kim refused to meet with his high-ranking Chinese visitors?
Does it not seem plausible that this report was disinformation calculated to exacerbate PRC-NK tensions? A glimpse into a hall of mirrors…
Baduk has a very valid point. China has made a minor deviation from its typical quiet defense of North Korea in the international arena. The result has been that the DPRK is excoriating them. And by publicizing this to third parties, Kim is making sure Beijing knows that its options of chastizing Pyongyang will not be tolerated.
Grayhat,
Kim wasn’t telling the American anything he hadn’t already told the Chinese, it seems, from this sentence in the report, which says that Kim communicated clearly his dissatisfaction with China to visiting high ranking Chinese officials:
중국에 대한 김 위원장의 불만은 우다웨이(武大偉) 중국 외교부 부부장과 후이량위(回良玉) 국무원 부총리의 10일 평양 방문에서 분명하게 표시됐다
I’ll bet Hu hasn’t had a restful night since he learned that Kim thinks the Chinese aren’t trustworthy. Kim’s verbal tantrums are no match for Chinese pragmatism.
Disagree with Baduk’s take. There probably is real discord between the Chinese and the North Koreans although we will never see a break like the one between China and the Soviet Union since “juche” North Korea could not survive without Chinese imports.
Judging from the photo of Kim in the JoongAng piece, looks like he’s had some work done.
3 to 4 people run China. KJI runs NK. General public in both countries and news agencies have no idea how these powerful people think.
KJI, I am sure, is in daily private communication with China’s politicians (his masters). What they say in public are garbages and disinformation.
Think the opposite of what they say in newspapers.
1. I am leaning towards the KJI quote to an American is disinformation.
2. All news coming from China / nK seems to indicate that nK has moved closer into China’s sphere of influence.
3. That being said, north Korea is probably viwed as a necessary evil in terms of long term Chinese goals. China gets greater influence over 35% of the future population of a reunified Korea, but nKs actions provide the US reason for continued engagement in the region.
The real question is what does China feel about Japan and is the trouble north Korea causes worth the risks? Japanese rearmament, obstensibly in response to the north Korean threat, may spur an arms race and in the long term be seen as an obstacle against Chinese regional hegemony. However, it will also move countries in the region (like Korea) closer to China.
Is everyone forgetting that this is NOT the first time Kim Jong-il has tossed up a trial balloon for switching camps?
Didn’t know KJI was a switch hitter. They must be keeping that on the down low
I hope KJI gets more mouthy against the Chinese. I’m sure Hu would love to give the fat dwarf a long deserved ‘bitch slapping’.