Lips and teeth relationship

By Shin Hyun-gook

In March of this year, amid joint military drills conducted by the United States and South Korea, North Korea declared it would no longer abide by the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. Furthermore, North Korea threatened to strike the U.S. with “lighter and smaller nukes.” A few days later, in reaction to this, the U.S. president’s national security adviser made an announcement that the U.S. Treasury Department would impose sanctions on a North Korean bank that specializes in foreign exchange transactions.

Amid escalating intimidation by North Korea, the North Korean media denounced the U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises, saying, “the crazy dog has to be dealt with by whips,” thus justifying its threats to the world.

This would be analogous to a thief crying out, “Stop thief!” The pot is calling the kettle black. The entire world knows who the real crazy dog is that needs to be whipped. The international community had to deal with a rogue state which has been threatening world peace. Everyone knows which nation is sponsoring terrorism and trying to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.

Traditionally, China, and her formal allied nation, North Korea, mutually described their relationship as one of “lips and teeth.” Sure! When the lips are lost, the teeth would be exposed to the cold. If North Korea were the lips, then South Korea should be the one to make China feel cold. But, South Korea is no longer a cold front against China. Over the past decade, the relationship between South Korea and China has completely transformed.

It is true that China and North Korea have been so closely related that they have common interests. However, it is also true that North Korea has been a long-standing headache for China. Throughout the past six decades China has repeatedly found its own national security interests affected and compromised by the provocative and confrontational policies pursued by North Korea. Until now, the relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang has been severely strained for many years due to many accumulated incidents triggered by North Korea’s brinksmanship diplomacy.

Well, the lips are chapped and fallen into deep-rooted sickness, and therefore, no longer able to keep the teeth warm, making it inevitable for China to find a new expression describing her relationship with North Korea.

China may not need to do it. South Korea is no longer an adversary. During the past two decades, the two nations have advanced their political, economic, diplomatic and cultural relations with unprecedented speed and scope. This development has been driven by expanding bilateral economic cooperation and its resulting benefits.

China has become South Korea’s largest trading partner, surpassing the United States. South Korea is China’s third-largest trading partner in the world. Trade volume between China and South Korea has increased approximately 35 times from roughly $6 billion in 1992, the year of diplomatic normalization, to over $220 billion in 2011. South Korea is one of the largest foreign investors in China with more than 8,000 South Korean companies in operation, employing hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers.

It has been speculated that President Park Geun-hye will visit China sometime in June for a summit meeting with President Xi Jinping. Prior to this, just a few weeks ago, Park, during her summit meeting in Washington, D.C. with President Obama, discussed the North Korean issue and China’s role in the situation.

Park made it clear that she would ask China to exert more influence to denuclearize North Korea. Hinting at her planned visit to China, Park said she would like to engage in candid discussions with President Xi about whether the current path it is taking is sustainable if North Korea decides not to become a responsible member of the international community.

Earlier this month, the Bank of China

closed accounts

of a North Korean bank, demonstrating a strong commitment by the Beijing government to comply with U.N. sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear provocations. This announcement came at a time when the newly inaugurated South Korean president was engaged in robust and vivacious diplomatic activities in the U.S.

Here is a reminder for the leaders of the rogue nation. Leaders of that nation are urged to ruminate the meaning of the Chinese saying, “The Chu Songs on Four Sides.” In other words they should be able to foresee the negative results from “being besieged from all sides,’’ “being utterly isolated,’’ “being in desperate straits,’’ and “being under fire from all quarters.’’

The writer is a chair professor of the Catholic University of Daegu. He previously headed the Foreign News Division of the Korea Overseas Information Service. His email address is shinhyungook@hotmail.com.