Kissinger and Korea

At RealClearWorld American China analyst Joseph Bosco critiques Henry Kissinger’s prescriptions for dealing with North Korea, earlier commented on at The Glittering Eye:

But Kissinger glosses over China’s critical role in supporting Pyongyang’s blatantly illegal weapons activities. On this fundamental point, he has been consistently faulty in his analysis and derelict in his responsibilities as probably the world’s most influential expert on U.S.-China relations.

From the inception of North Korea’s nuclear program with Chinese technology acquired through A.Q. Kahn’s network in Pakistan, through the decades of Beijing’s logistical, financial, and diplomatic support, Kissinger has offered one rationalization after another in China’s defense. His 1,400-word article, while explaining yet again why Beijing’s fear of regime collapse in Pyongyang accounts for China’s reticence, has nothing to say about its active participation in fostering the buildup of the nuclear and missile programs.

Indeed, the history of Chinese-North Korean collaboration contradicts this statement of conventional wisdom — a statement recited not just by Kissinger but by every U.S. administration he has advised on North Korea: “China shares the American concern regarding nuclear proliferation; it is in fact the country most immediately affected by it.”

You may see some parallels of my views in the sentiments expressed by Mr. Bosco. I think he’s still being too optimistic. The North Koreans aren’t interested in normalizing relations with the rest of the world. There isn’t much they can get through negotiations that they can’t get by maintaining their present trajectory.

In an odd sort of way the relationship between North Korea and China has resonance with John Maynard Keynes’s well-known wisecrack: “Owe your banker £1000 and you are at his mercy; owe him £1 million and the position is reversed.” North Korea’s situation is so tenuous and they are so totally dependent on China that China is at North Korea’s mercy. Until it isn’t at which point the Kim regime will cease to exist.

0 comments… add one

Leave a Comment