By Choi Sung-jin
China, which has a mutual defense treaty with North Korea, will not defend the North if a conflict or war occurs in relation to the North's nuclear problems, Chinese specialists said Sunday.
Pang Zhongying, an international relations expert at Renmin University of China, said North Korea's development of nuclear weapons, which Beijing regards as a threat to China's security, had damaged their bilateral relationship so irreparably that it had rendered their mutual assistance pact null and void, the South China Morning Post reported.
In 1961, North Korea and China signed a mutual aid treaty, which calls for one side to provide military assistance immediately if the other was invaded.
"This is the only security pact between the two countries with legal force," Pang said. "It exists, however, in only a legal sense, and there is almost no possibility that China will provide military aid if war occurs on the Korean Peninsula."
It (the treaty's future) depends largely on whether North Korea will accept international demands to discontinue its nuclear development programs, the researcher argued, saying that the growing tension on the peninsula showed there was little sign of the North easing its stance.
Other Chinese specialists expressed similar views.
"There is no doubt that China will not support North Korea if war breaks out as the result of the North's nuclear development," said Shen Jiru, a fellow at the Institute for World Economy and Politics, a think tank at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Stressing that China should not bind itself by the treaty if North Korea continued to seek nuclear development programs, Shen said, "The treaty is a remnant of the Cold War, which did not specify conditions for China's provision of military assistance."
The researcher also pointed out that the pact did not fit with China's more recent principle of national security, which opposed military alliances with other countries. "Now that China has drawn a red line (on nuclear provocations), it does not even need to cancel the treaty officially," Shen said.
But a British expert of China differed somewhat.
Professor Kerry Brown of King's College London said the treaty had thrown China into a permanent difficult spot. "The treaty worked as China's means of controlling North Korea in competition with the old Soviet Union's influence on it in 1961, but the situations have changed now and Pyongyang is controlling Beijing with the treaty," he said.
A Korean scholar expressed similar views. "As long as the treaty remains effective, China will be bound to intervene if tension keeps escalating or goes beyond control," said Professor Lee Jeong-nam of Korea University. "If war breaks out, China will try to discuss solutions first instead of providing full support for North Korea."
Although the treaty had no stipulations to renew its efficacy, most experts believed it had been renewed twice and would remain effective until 2021, the Hong Kong-based English daily said.
China, which has a mutual defense treaty with North Korea, will not defend the North if a conflict or war occurs in relation to the North's nuclear problems, Chinese specialists said Sunday.
Pang Zhongying, an international relations expert at Renmin University of China, said North Korea's development of nuclear weapons, which Beijing regards as a threat to China's security, had damaged their bilateral relationship so irreparably that it had rendered their mutual assistance pact null and void, the South China Morning Post reported.
In 1961, North Korea and China signed a mutual aid treaty, which calls for one side to provide military assistance immediately if the other was invaded.
"This is the only security pact between the two countries with legal force," Pang said. "It exists, however, in only a legal sense, and there is almost no possibility that China will provide military aid if war occurs on the Korean Peninsula."
It (the treaty's future) depends largely on whether North Korea will accept international demands to discontinue its nuclear development programs, the researcher argued, saying that the growing tension on the peninsula showed there was little sign of the North easing its stance.
Other Chinese specialists expressed similar views.
"There is no doubt that China will not support North Korea if war breaks out as the result of the North's nuclear development," said Shen Jiru, a fellow at the Institute for World Economy and Politics, a think tank at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Stressing that China should not bind itself by the treaty if North Korea continued to seek nuclear development programs, Shen said, "The treaty is a remnant of the Cold War, which did not specify conditions for China's provision of military assistance."
The researcher also pointed out that the pact did not fit with China's more recent principle of national security, which opposed military alliances with other countries. "Now that China has drawn a red line (on nuclear provocations), it does not even need to cancel the treaty officially," Shen said.
But a British expert of China differed somewhat.
Professor Kerry Brown of King's College London said the treaty had thrown China into a permanent difficult spot. "The treaty worked as China's means of controlling North Korea in competition with the old Soviet Union's influence on it in 1961, but the situations have changed now and Pyongyang is controlling Beijing with the treaty," he said.
A Korean scholar expressed similar views. "As long as the treaty remains effective, China will be bound to intervene if tension keeps escalating or goes beyond control," said Professor Lee Jeong-nam of Korea University. "If war breaks out, China will try to discuss solutions first instead of providing full support for North Korea."
Although the treaty had no stipulations to renew its efficacy, most experts believed it had been renewed twice and would remain effective until 2021, the Hong Kong-based English daily said.
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