Envoy gives China benefit of doubt

New Zealand Ambassador to Seoul Clare Fearnley, center, speaks during a breakfast talk sponsored by the Kwanhun Club at the Press Center, Tuesday. The panelists, from left, are Segye Times international department editor Cho Nam-kyu, Korea Times chief editorial writer Oh Young-jin, KBS digital news department chief Lee Kang-duk and YTN deputy managing editor Lee Dong-won. / Courtesy of Kwanhun Club

By Oh Young-jin

China often serves as the whipping boy for anything going wrong with North Korea.

South Korea and the United States blame China for not being cooperative enough to give teeth to the international sanctions on Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile programs. Others say that it is a troublemaking bully trying to bump the U.S. in a fight for hegemony.

But New Zealand Ambassador to Seoul Clare Fearnley projected a more positive view of Beijing, saying that it shares the same goals as other regional players in the peaceful resolution of the North Korean problem.

“I take what China says at face value,” Fearnley told a breakfast panel discussion sponsored by the Kwanhun Club, a fraternity of reporters, at the Korea Press Center, Tuesday. “China says that it wants peaceful management and the resolution (of the North Korean challenge) through dialogue.”

Calling Beijing the beneficiary of Pax Pacificana ― a peaceful era in the region ― she said, “Without peace and stability, no prosperity is possible and that should be part of their calculation.”

Regarding conflicting views on China’s stance, she was generous attributing it to “different interpretations” that depend on the different interests of the parties involved.

Fearnley is a China expert, having studied in China and served as consul general in Shanghai. She has served in various positions in New Zealand’s foreign ministry dealing with Asia affairs.

Asked whether the current “sanctions-only” policy toward the North is viable since it appears only to have hardened the North’s stance, she pointed out the many years taken to bring Iran to the negotiating table and more years to reach an agreement on the freezing of its nuclear program.

She acknowledged that with the North, things are moving more quickly with the advanced stage of development of its weapons of mass destruction but suggested that it was part of efforts to start “meaningful discussion.”

She also objected to seeing the changing dynamic between China and the United States only through the context of competition. Noting that China has grown to be the biggest trading partner to an increasing number of countries, she pointed out its cooperation highlighted by the agreement in Paris to fight climate change.

On the bilateral front, the ambassador said that the New Zealand-Korea free trade agreement has produced lopsided benefits in Seoul’s favor ― a 25 percent increase in Seoul’s shipments to New Zealand and 3 percent rise the other way around.

The Korean wave or hallyu ― food, drama and K-pop ― is also popular in New Zealand.

“I went back to New Zealand recently to see five different kinds of kimchi available in a small town supermarket,” she said. “Two years ago, when I came to Korea, there were none.”

She was amazed by the cultural contagion, saying that some young people in New Zealand have taught themselves Korean to understand dramas and pop songs.