Kim’s visit to China

Pyongyang turns to Beijing for more aid

It is extraordinary for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to travel to China three times in a year. But he has done so by making his third visit to the Asian power since May 2010. This time his journey started Friday by passing through Tumen, a northeastern Chinese city bordering the North. It was construed as an inevitable step for the already impoverished communist state to seek more economic aid and food supply from Beijing.

Like his previous visits to China last year, Kim appeared to focus his attention on attracting more Chinese investment in the North’s special economic zone in Rason at the estuary of the Tumen River as well as in the joint development of border towns along the Yalu River. The two countries have already agreed to such massive projects. However, the Chinese side has not been quick in injecting huge sums into the North to help the latter recover from economic woes.

Against this backdrop, Kim traveled to China’s northeastern regions in an apparent bid to take advantage of an ambitious development project linking Changchun, Jilin and Tumen. China aims to gain access to the Pacific through the North’s Rason port. Both countries can benefit from the joint development of the border areas. We hope Pyongyang and Beijing will produce successful results in their bilateral economic cooperation to help ease the North’s economic hardship.

In return for economic and food aid, Beijing may press Pyongyang to make good on its denuclearization pledges or mend ties with South Korea. The neighboring giant may also encourage the North to mimic the Chinese-style of economic reform and openness. However, it is still too early to expect the North to break out of its isolation and the dire poverty of its masses. We are somewhat concerned about the North’s snowballing reliance on the Chinese economy.

Even closer ties and heavier dependence on China will isolate the North further, making denuclearization and better relations with the South more difficult goals. In this regard, Beijing is required to actively prod Pyongyang to scrap its atomic arms programs and become less hostile to the South. The G2 nation should stop so blindly protecting the North in the face of international condemnation for sinking the South’s warship Cheonan and selling Yeonpyeong Island last year.

China and other neighboring powers intend to maintain the status quo on the peninsula. They don’t want to see any cataclysmic changes in the North, including the sudden collapse of the repressive Kim regime. However, this does not mean that the North should be left to continue its nuclear gambling and saber-rattling. China, in particular, must wield more influence over the North to stop the world last Stalinist country from posing a threat to peace in Northeast Asia.

Kim’s latest visit to China may be to secure Chinese support for the ongoing hereditary power transfer to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un. Instead of simply allowing the Kim family to solidify their dictatorship, Beijing should pay heed to international concerns about such a dynastic inheritance.

The Seoul government needs to make more diplomatic efforts to bring the North to the table to discuss the nuclear issue and find ways to relax tensions and move toward reconciliation. We urge President Lee Myung-bak and his policymakers to use a carrot and a stick simultaneously to deal with the recalcitrant North, although it is easier said than done.