Kanwa Editorial Feb.04 1999
Kim by TV SBS via Yihong Zhang monitored Several Western media have reported the statement made by the Chinese ambassador to South Korea. In his recent statement, the ambassador publicly called for the visit of Kim Jong Il to China. Some observers of the east Asia affairs in Washington believe that China has put pressure on Kim Jong Il in the hope that he will visit China.
The KWIC believes that the Chinese ambassador's call does not mean that the relationship between these two countries has improved to such a level as to create the atmosphere suitable for Kim Jong Il to visit China in the near future. On the contrary, such a statement made in the capital of the number one enemy of North Korea precisely indicates that the relationship between China and North Korea is in the state of frigidity and that China believes North Korea is to blame for the attitude the latter takes.
Up until the early 1980s, Kim Il Song, the great leader of the North Korean People, had visited China almost once a year "just like visiting a relative". At that time, there were several channels for the exchanges between the two parties, governments, states, and armies and the internal "circulation of information" was conducted on a regular basis. This was what the Chinese scholar of North Korea affairs described. It is imaginable that in that situation, the exchange of visits between the two supreme leaders was totally the internal affairs between the two "brotherly parties". It didn't need to be called for publicly.
There are indications that since last fall, there has been no positive sign of improvement in the bilateral relationship even though China made the timely delivery of 80 thousand tons of crude oil this year as an aid to North Korea. Most noticeably, last October, the Da DI Monthly of the October issue published by the People's Daily of China made a sarcastic criticism of the feudal hereditary politics of Kim Jong Il's regime. It was the first time in the history of the Sino-North Korean relationship for the Chinese official news media to make a public verbal criticism of Kim Jong Il himself. In August, the KWIC was the first one to report that in the Zhong Jiang area on the border, North Korea was setting up the underground missile base aimed at different targets. This location was less than 100 kilometers from the missile base of the Chinese Second Artillery in Tong Hua. Ever since 1989, North Korea has changed its original defence strategy of only paying absolute attention to "the south" and instead, has started to address the issue of defence against "the north" (China and Russia). Its 10th Group Army stationed at the border area has been expanded. The Western intelligence source has recently claimed that there are, actually, as many as four missile bases on the North Korean side of the border.
This year, a fishing dispute occurred around the border area and even violent attacks happened. According to a report in Hong Kong, North Korea may even enhance its bilateral relationship with Taiwan, including the cooperation in intelligence.
More noticeably, at the fourth quadrilateral meeting that ended in January, North Korea didn't make any public positive response to the new proposals made by China on the solution to the relevant problems. At the bilateral meeting between North Korea and the USA immediately following the quadrilateral meeting, North Korea decided to make a unilateral compromise on the inspection of its underground facilities. Later, the Foreign Ministry of North Korea announced at a press conference that progress had been made, in order to indicate that North Korea had gained the initiative at the meeting.
North Korea was opposed to the so-called quadrilateral meeting even in the very beginning. Instead, it hoped to hold a trilateral meeting and to obtain the recognition of the USA through its negotiation with the USA and South Korea so that it could proceed with the talks on the normalization of its relationship with Japan. It was for the consideration of "not heightening the position of North Korea in the diplomatic negotiations" that the USA tried to draw China into the circle.
This year, there has been no indication that China and North Korea will try to hold the high-level contacts. Even the exchange of visits between the prime ministers and the foreign ministers can hardly be realized. How can the summit talks become a reality? ( Kanwa Yihong Zahng )
