It’s the late Joseon era all over again

The Chosun Ilbo warns—perhaps not entirely without reason—that Beijing is turning North Korea into a Chinese province [Chosun Ilbo, English]. (HT to Lost Nomad)

This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on April 13, 2007 at 9:36 am, filed under Asides, China, East and Central Asia, Inter-Korean Issues. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

9 Comments

  1. snow your flag
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 11:12 am | Permalink

    What exactly has South Korea gained from appeasing North Korea and seriously damaging the alliance with the US? China is still the one with all the influence in the North and is not about to let SK have any substantial piece of the action. As a balancer, it is and will continue to be ignored.

  2. hoju_saram your flag
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 2:11 pm | Permalink

    Great way to turn public opinion in SK against Kim Jung Il: claim he’s selling out korean heritage to China. Nobody gives a shit about what he’s doing to the North Korean people, but if he starts messing with the precious principles of the Han, another story entirely…

  3. R. Elgin your flag
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 3:24 pm | Permalink

    If one adds to this thread some examples of current client countries/regimes of China and the Chinese premier’s recent FTA-related comments, during his visit in Seoul, about “cold war” elements in Korea needing to go before reunification between the two Koreas can occur, it is not difficult to infer that China is putting heavy pressure on South Korea to do what they want or else suffer.

  4. R. Elgin your flag
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 3:28 pm | Permalink

    Hoju_saram, such has been done already. This current South Korean administration has been trying to cover this up because they are afraid of many things.

    I can not say that I blame them for being afraid but sometimes one should not hide from the truth, even if it is shaped like a tiger.

  5. michael your flag
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 6:28 pm | Permalink

    Basically China will be able to rape N.K. for its resources since it knows the S.K.-U.S. alliance is weak and S.K. on its own is powerless and has absolutely no influence over the norks. China can offer no-strings financial support and a safe harbor if/when N.K. implodes.

    This also shows how empty the “sunshine” policy turned out to be, although it did by Kim DJ a nice Nobel medal.

  6. sewing your flag
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 11:51 pm | Permalink

    Alack and alas, this is old news.

  7. sewing your flag
    Posted April 13, 2007 at 11:53 pm | Permalink

    Heh…I was thinking “old news,” as in the writing’s been on the wall ever since the Northeast History Project went public. But I guess you could say it’s “old news” going all the way back to the Liaoning Commandery and whatnot.

  8. JiMong your flag
    Posted April 14, 2007 at 6:27 am | Permalink

    The Chosun Ilbo…Of course.

  9. SomeguyinKorea your flag
    Posted April 14, 2007 at 10:07 am | Permalink

    hoju_saram,

    I think it’s actually an attempt to drum up support for the South Korean government’s policy of investment in North Korea.

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