Nuclear test ruptures China-North Korea ties

Mike Kiselycznyk Reporter

BEIJING — A year ago this month President Hu Jintao was greeted as a “friendly emissary of the Chinese people” by tens of thousands of people in the streets of Pyongyang.

Now, following the nuclear test by North Korea, the warm brotherly love between China and North Korea — who fought the United States during the Korean War and have remained close allies for over fifty years — has been replaced with distrust and tension.

In unprecedented language, the Chinese foreign ministry condemned the test, stating, “The Chinese government is resolutely opposed to this act” and labeled the test “flagrant.”

“In Chinese political language 'flagrant' is only used to label the enemy and never used for countries that have normal relationship with each other,” said Dr. Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University.

“One thing is clear: The strategic relationship between North Korea and China will deteriorate dramatically. The comradely and brotherly relationship is over,” said Yan.

A question of security
Prior to this weekend's test, Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement urging North Korea to “keep calm and observe restraint on the nuclear test issue.”

Kim, however, disregarded China’s advice and thus created a difficult strategic dilemma for its larger neighbor.

“It’s not a question of China losing face, it’s a question of China getting more security threats in this region,” said Yan. “One is possible border disputes [with North Korea], and secondly the uncertain response from Japan and South Korea to this nuclear test.”

Yan, one of China’s top international security experts, warned of the possibility that the Chinese-North Korean relationship could follow the path of Sino-Soviet relations during the 1960s, and of Sino-Vietnamese relations in the late 1970s.

The Sino-Soviet split — over both ideological and strategic differences — eventually erupted into a series of border conflicts in 1969. China also fought a bloody border war with Vietnam in 1979 after the latter invaded neighboring Cambodia. Such inability of neighboring communist countries to smoothly handle conflicts hints at the possibility of worsening relations between Beijing and Pyongyang.

The current crisis falls on fertile ground — tensions at the border have remained high in recent years due to the flow of drugs, smuggled goods, counterfeit money, and refugees that flow into China over the North Korean border — reports indicate that with news of the impending nuclear test last week, China moved greater numbers of troops to the North Korean border.

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