By Kang Hyun-kyung
BEIJING ― Observers were left scratching their heads over China’s reassurance of its position earlier this week that it won’t exert any influence on North Korea.
Questions arose over its motives after the state-controlled media’s fresh clarification of its decades-long position coincided with President Lee Myung-bak’s Beijing trip.
China watchers speculated the target audience of such a message was probably Pyongyang, which is now undergoing a leadership change after the death of Kim Jong-il.
“It has long been China’s policy that it won’t stir up the North,” Lee Tae-hwan, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, said Friday. “China and South Korea share the view that North Korea would be better off if it seeks economic reforms and opens the country to the outside world.”
But Lee indicated that Beijing is unwilling to push this course, if it would upset its neighbor.
Several experts backed Lee’s view that Beijing displays extreme caution when choosing words on Pyongyang in diplomatic documents or joint statements that are to be made public.
North Korea has a track record of committing abrupt provocations while dialogue was underway.
The North sank the warship Cheonan in March 2010 months after a series of conciliatory gestures through its delegation dispatched to Seoul for the funeral of former President Kim Dae-jung in August 2009.
Given the North’s unique pattern, it seems natural that China pays extra attention not to make it uneasy, particularly at a time when a young, inexperienced leader is taking over power amid continuing food shortages.
Chinese state-controlled media reported Tuesday that there has been no change in policy and Beijing won’t flex its muscles in regards to Pyongyang.
Zhang Liangui, a professor of international strategic research at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, was quoted as saying that President Lee hopes Beijing will exert influence on the North.
“Yet, China is clear that it has limited influence and is unwilling to interfere too much in the domestic affairs of North Korea,” the China Daily, a state-controlled English newspaper, reported Tuesday.
The front-page story elaborated on President Hu Jintao’s remarks during a summit with the Korean President on Monday in Beijing.
“The Chinese authorities are aware that foreign governments monitor English newspapers like the China Daily closely,” said Lee from the Sejong Institute. “Having said that, the state-controlled media will not run stories that can anger or make North Korea uneasy.”
After the summit, President Lee met Wen Jiabao Tuesday. The Lee-Wen talks were followed by dinner that night.
Asking for anonymity, a government official told reporters that Lee and Wen exchanged frank views on North Korea in a sincere manner.
The official declined to give any details of the conversation.
During the talks with Chinese leaders, President Lee called on them to make “tireless efforts” to convince the North that it needs to seek economic reform and open up the country to the outside world.
Lee and Chinese leaders agreed to cooperate for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.