China and North korea

Putting a squeeze on

China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, persuades Kim Jong Il to return to nuclear-arms talks

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Readers' comments



@ bobbyziegfried
I do believe you have a strong prejudice against China after reading some of your comments.
"what we should do is convince China to take in North Korean refugees and not repatriate them to die in North Korea"
Ah, "good idea", then I have a question: how long will they live in China,how to settle them down?
Why not give some practical suggestion?


Perhaps we might all consider the benefit of diplomacy being played out between two countries able to show respect to each other rather than the heavy handed impact of Sanctions that don't work..


i want to say, that no human can be a loving saint, that is treating everyone in the world equally, regardless of nation,ethinicity,gender,or colour. and caring more for those close to us, our families, friends,our nation is what makes us human. of course if you can empathize with others, thats a bonus. but our morality do not require us to do so.

if we brush away all the rhetorics, all the political show, and stupid media commetaries, we would realize, we never cared for those in need, you heard me right.
NK is just one of them we conveniently choose to ignore, fighting proxy wars, largest landmines field, economic sanctions,unreported famines,,,we never cared, and you can safely bet we never will. everyone like to befriend with the powerful, the beautiful, while we turn our heads away from the weak, the ugly, the poors.

the world is utilitarian, is money talking, is strategic relation, is point scoring. you wont find vocab like humanity, freedom, foundamental rights in policy making table. if they ever gets mentioned, its tokenism, lip service, leverage.

someone said they have nukes? i wonder why.


It is unacceptable for N Korea to have nukes that will threaten the security of North East Asia especially S Korea and Japan.

It is also unacceptable for the US to label N Korea as an Axis of Evil and threaten its existence with the use of force.

Therefore both sides should do the necessary to remove the tension in North East Asia given that Premier Wen has now laid his enormous prestige at stake.


As a country that develops rapidly ,china has the duty to make the world peacelly ,such as to talk with the North korea,but more importantly is the development of "some dangerous couties",because if they develop,the dangerous index will drop ,so indeed we need every coutries be more cooperant ,especilly in economy , education and culture~


Chinese Premier Wen must be given the due credit for his effort in coaxing (perhaps with a bit of squeeze) North Korea Kim to go back to the nuclear arm talks. But given the history of the ever flippant Kim, one cannot be too sure if he would not put on the reverse gear again at the final moment.

Just keep the fingers crossed.


High quality Human resource is the essence of any technology program which involves space , defence , nuclear technology. I wonder how countries which take pride in their technolgy survive for long in isolation from the rest of the world. Unless the human capital is well educated, trained and can freely exchange scientific and technical wealth with other nations it will be difficult to innovate or atleast stay at par with the technolgy gained so far. If the 6 party talks fail again it will be a total loss for north korean people in the long run ( Science & technology,education,Health).


Ah, but Japan's paid a lot of the economic aid that North Korea demands. I'm with the South Koreans here. Don't buy the same horse twice (actually what is it, 10nth time?).

In fact, what we should do is convince China to take in North Korean refugees and not repatriate them to die in North Korea (which is what often happens). This will cause an utter collapse of the regime because once the desperate people of North Korea know they can leave, they will.

The longer time drags on, the greater the suffering of North Korean people. Every year they get further and further behind technology, innovation, and education, not to mention living in dire poverty. Here in Korea, I've talked to many North Koreans and they say things are BAD. All of this is thanks to China and Kim Jong il.

Candymancan wrote:October 6, 2009 11:57
In hindsight and with due respect to Japan, it was probably a grave mistake to get Japan into the six-party talk that so far with nothing much to show for.


A hearty hug? That's no way to show the enormous debt that your inhumane and God-forsaken Stalinist monarchy owes to Beijing, Kim Jong-il. You should kneel before Wen Jiabao, kiss his feet, and offer to wash them with your tears of heart-felt gratitude.


South Koreans have been anti-US in the past few years, but you might be glad to hear (if you are an American, that is) that the fad has now died down. It really was nothing more than a fad, just a bunch of kids talking it up, like your Ron Paul supporters on the Internet. But it did serve its purpose of making the US not take South Korean alliance for granted.


I am going to agree with candyman, and calicocat should sit quietly on the sofa.

No one can deny that Japan has basic security interests in this issue, but the presence of Japan at the talks does not hold up to cost-benefit analysis. The Japanese abductee sideshow and historic animosities can only add to the already high levels of mistrust in the room. And let's be honest, the DPRK is ruled by a junta for which saving face takes on a disproportional importance. Political illegitimacy creates a greater need for diplomatic stature, and the dividends earned in shaking Mr. Clinton's hand could be lost just as quickly (in domestic DPRK eyes) in shaking Mr. Hatoyama's. Japan's position will in any case mirror America's. Her presence at the talks will only add pressure, the wrong kind, to Mr. Kim's already well practiced slide into his song and dance of diversion, deceit and recalcitrance.

Frankly, the talks are probably of limited utility anyways. The best forseeable outcome is for the surrounding powers to rent some security in the form of temporary DPRK compliance, but that may in turn prolong the Kim regime. As for Japan, she can only hope to pay a little more on the side to buy back some abductees, but that would be paying ransom. In either case, dealing with the Kims looks like a mixed blessing at best.

As I said before, China should have tried a decade ago to identify and promote DPRK moderates who could initiate Deng-style capitalist reforms. That is the only real hope for North Korea and its long-suffering neighbors.


It would be difficult indeed to insist that Japan leave the six party talks as any NK missile that makes it that far passes over Japan. NK has also made direct threats against Japan. Perhaps the kidnapping issue is being overplayed but it is very important to the Japanses public and no government in Japan can just give it up.

On the other hand both China and NK like to play up the Japanese crimes during WWII. This is significant today only due to the omission of the crimes both the Chinese and NK government have perpetuated on their own people. I think that Mao was responsible for more deaths of Chinese than Japan ever was.

China would love to trump Japan as a regional power. The insistance by NK that Japan be dumped from the talks is probably as useful to the Chinese as it is to NK and I wouldn't doubt that the Chinese happy to allow it to continue.

It would be a huge mistake by the US to abandon a stalwart ally by allowing this to happen.


As a chinese , i just can`t agree wen`s transaction with jin. talk it like it is , china is a developing country and there are a lot of chinese people make their livelihood by getting aid from government ,some of them even confront difference to obtain enough food and cloth .china could get that much through this transaction?


Sorry but one needs to be completely cynical here, these talks have been going on for decades, what have they ever actually achieved other than the fact that North Korea becoming ever more nuclear capable ?


It is hard for me to see where China and the Americans and their allies have a coincidence of interests. China is very busy developing a world wide military capability. I should think it is in their geopolitical interests to have a loose cannon generally aimed east. So long as this cannon is not aimed west to China, it is to their advantage. By developing stronger economic ties, China is buying protection from North Korea's military might.
A considerable downside for China is a collapsed NK economy with large refugee migrations into China.
Of course, the US, being a huge debtor to China, does not have a lot of clout in this matter.


Why should china assist DPRK ?It's a huge mistake that china did't recover the authority in North Korean 60 years ago,DPRK has no future,because the dictator Kim Jong and his subordinates are idiots,may be more danger than Adolf. Hitler.


To add on to Candymancan:

I wholly agree that the Japanese presence in the six-party talks makes the matter much more complicated, especially if you consider that North Korea still has the right to ask for WW2 reparations not only for its own citizens, but also for South Korea's citizens as well. Therefore, although relations between South Korea and Japan have been normalized since 1965, the DPRK could call for Japan to compensate Koreans twice - not a situation Japan wants to get itself into.

Additionally, the Japanese delegation consistently calls for the DPRK to concede it has other living abductees, to disclose their whereabouts, and to return them to Japan. The problem is, if the DPRK admits to these (in all likelihood truthful) accusations, it would create an additional problem on a humanitarian scale, one which would obscure the nuclear issue as well as put too much pressure on the DPRK so as not to see any real resolution on either front. I feel the abductee issue should be set aside for now and dealt with in another 3 or 4 party talk (incl. U.S. and China).

However, to say it was a mistake to allow Japan into the six-party talks is also ignoring the apoxy-like bond between Japan and the U.S. Although the U.S. is the dominant partner in the relationship, any security issue that occurs in East Asia must be approached with Japan, whether in tow or in the lead. Even before the DPJ assumed power, members of the LDP were calling for less reliance on and capitulation to the U.S. While any severing of the alliance is a far off possibility, leaving Japan in the dust, so to speak, could potentially cause unwanted instability in a time where the U.S. needs a strong ally amongst, China, the DPRK, and an increasingly anti-US (amongst the populace) South Korea.


China is gradually losing patience, and of course North Korea should leave some ground. North Korea must also be regarding it as the best way to step back to the six-party talk as Mr Wen's visit has shown enough sincerity and enough importance that has been attached to it.


It is a good news that North Koren will return to the six-party to solve the nuke problem.America and other partners also try their best to reach the goal that make the world more peaceful and safer.



Other than being its neighbor, Japan has had built up too much mistrust with North Korea because Japan’s WWII atrocities; and not just with North Korea but also with South Korea and China too.

With such composition of members for the talk, it was difficult at best to develop ambience of conferences conducive to reaching positive consensus.

Now that China is winning back a step toward renewing or resuming of the 6-party talk following Mr. Wen’s visit to Pyongyang, perhaps it’s time to consider changing the talk to 5-party talk sans Japan.

There should be no face lost for Japan. It would be contributing to the talk by abstaining from attending the talk, and that would be good statesmanship of global image.


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