China’s mild response to the March 2010 sinking of South Korean navy warship Cheonan has frustrated many people. It has not joined the United States, Japan, and South Korea in openly condemning Pyongyang and threatening punitive measures. What explains China’s fence-sitting on this issue? What is China interest on the Korean peninsula?
The mantra used to be that North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – DPRK) never changed, in contrast to the dynamism of South Korea (Republic of Korea- ROK). This was always a doubtful assertion – change there was but it was slow and often barely perceived because of the DPRK’s skill at concealment. Today, the mantra no longer applies. While some still bemoan the DPRK’s relatively slowness to change, few would now deny that change has been taking place. Unfortunately, from most points of view, it was change in the wrong direction in 2008.
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