China, not U.S., seeks peace in North Korea: scholar

SEOUL — China seeks peace and opening in North Korea for its own sustained economic development while the U.S. would rather have “controllable, moderate tension” on the Korean Peninsula, a scholar said Tuesday.

“There are a lot of people who say that China does not want Korean unification and would seek to maximize its interests by playing in between the two Koreas but what would China gain actually from this standoff, other than a greater say in the UN?” Jin Qiangyi, professor of Yanbian University said.

Jin, an ethnic Korean Chinese national, was speaking as part of the conference entitled “The Xi Jinping administration’s Korea policy and Sino-DPRK relations,” hosted by Asiatic Research Institute at Korea University.

China has to seek peace and opening in North Korea in order to develop the economy of its northeastern area, which shares a border with North Korea, Jin said.

China has a structural imbalance in its economy, which is now manifesting in slower development and geographic inequality. Despite ongoing advances in the east coast area, where major cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen are located, the northeastern and western areas have falling behind, he said.

Stressing China’s need for balanced growth, Jin argued that the northeastern area has more opportunities for economic development.

“It is like a small horse that is the east coast is pulling a big cart that is China,” Jin said. “While the central government has recently been putting emphasis on the development of the western area, the northeastern area has better conditions for connecting to the international community.”

In this context, the Korean Peninsula is very important to Beijing. Addressing the North Korea issue could at least provide a safe and open international environment for northeastern China.

“The instability in the (Northeast Asian) region by North Korea is making cooperation within the region difficult,” he said. “But the Cold War structure of the Korean Peninsula is making countries in the region focus their strategy on security rather than cooperation.”

If North Korea finally opens up in a peaceful environment, other countries like Russia and Japan would seek to join the competition for economic cooperation in the North, which could lead to major prosperity in the region, he said.

“From the Chinese perspective, tensions among neighboring countries are against its interests,” Jin said. “Korean unification would be a bonanza not only for the Koreans but also for Northeast Asia as a whole.”

Regarding how to address the North Korean nuclear crisis, Jin argued that there are two aspects to the crisis: the presence of nuclear weapons and enmity of those holding them.

Jin said that now it is very hard to remove the physical existence of nuclear weapons but it’s still possible to placate the North’s enmity.

“Even if someone has a gun in his pocket, it would be relatively safe if he doesn’t have enmity toward us,” he said.

Sanctions alone have certain limitations in solving the crisis and also aggravate the North’s enmity toward the international community. Jin suggested that Northeast Asian countries including China and South Korea should seek to expand economic and cultural exchanges to the extent that UN resolutions allow in order to resolve the animosity.

He also emphasized that North Korea is already in the process of reforming and has even exceeded China’s degree of reform in its early days of capitalist transition.

“While many take the leadership’s will for reform and opening as a chief standard, I think the most important thing is whether the country has established a market economy,” Jin said. “It is an enormous change that North Korea already has markets around.”

“Of course we should be opposed to its nuclear weapons. However, sanctions can never solve this issue alone. Then, how about proceeding to make it change? We should discuss this thoroughly.”

The U.S., however, would seek a “controllable, moderate tension” in the region since this would provide it, as a country not located in the Northeast Asia, with an excuse to intervene there, he argued.

“The Northeast Asian region is where future challengers to the U.S. could grow from. The U.S. global strategy wouldn’t work out if it can’t contain the region,” Jin said.

He also warned that China should avoid seeking hegemony in the era of democratization and interaction worldwide.

“Take a look at what happened to Russia after the Crimean crisis,” he said. “I think Putin’s behavior was very irresponsible. The sanctions (against Russia) will affect its national power for a decade.”

“China could suffer seriously if it seeks for such a hegemony,” he said.

Featured image: Eric Lafforgue

원문 링크 : http://www.nknews.org/2015/03/china-not-u-s-seeks-peace-in-north-korea-scholar/