President Xi is facing a dilemma over North Korea
‘Never before have the Chinese had to deal with’ a Kim Jong Un who has a ‘swagger in its step’
Chinese President Xi Jinping talked about a “new historical starting point” with North Korea after a tightly choreographed trip to Pyongyang this week. But behind the smiles, Beijing is becoming anxious about the erratic Kim Jong Un, the North Korean nuclear-armed autocrat.
Xi pledged to deepen ties and expand cooperation, as both sides spoke glowingly of a “rock-solid” relationship. Yet the real purpose of his visit was to keep a close eye on an unpredictable ally who is no longer playing by the old rules.
“Never before have the Chinese had to deal with a North Korea that has any swagger in its step,” Bob Carlin, a former US State Department official with more than 50 years of experience as a North Korea analyst, told CBS News.
Tale of two takes:
- Despite expressions of goodwill, there appeared to be “contrasting priorities in the official summaries of the” trip, the Reuters news agency reported.
- China’s state-run Xinhua highlighted high-level trade deals, while the official KCNA voicepiece of Kim’s regime “cast the summit” as a pact “between equals.”
Kim has forged a close alliance with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin.
Delve deeper: “North Korea removed elements that could make it look like a subordinate, dependent, or beneficiary party, and rewrote the relationship as one between equals,” Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said.
Between the lines: “It amplified signals of solidarity, such as anti-US and Taiwan-related messages, while erasing signals of dependence or subordination,” he told Reuters.
Big picture: Kim has forged a close alliance with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin after signing a mutual defense pact in 2024. He has provided critical military support for Moscow’s illegal war against Ukraine and deployed up to 15,000 troops.
Bottom line: “Xi wants to counterbalance Russian influence,” Victor Cha, the president of the geopolitics and foreign policy department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC. “China does not like anyone else having more influence than they do.”
China Factor comment: Beijing is certainly counting on Pyongyang. “This could mean a China-North Korea security alignment aimed at countering South Korea, the United States, and Japan,” Lim Eul-chul, a professor at South Korea’s Kyungnam University, told CNN.