Peninsula crisis will not hurt China-ROK ties

For its own security and interests, China was involved in the Korean War. China's involvement was out of its inseparable geographic and traditional links with the peninsula, but its participation in that war also brought China heavy sufferings. Instability on the peninsula is always viewed by China as a potential threat to its security. The US has military bases in a number of China's Asian neighbors, such as the ROK, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan. But it is China's belief that the US and Japan are using Pyongyang's nuclear test as an excuse to deploy the THAAD system on ROK territory, and that any US military intervention on the Korean Peninsula under the pretext of the peninsula's instability will pose a direct threat to its national security.

The Six-Party Talks are the only international mechanism for resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. Of the six parties, China and the ROK should have more motivation to push for the issue's peaceful settlement given that any crisis on the peninsula would pose a bigger threat to them than the other parties, such as the US, Russia and Japan.

The two Koreas are technically still at war because the armistice signed following the end of the Korean War (1950-53) has not been replaced by a peace agreement. Once the DPRK possesses nuclear weapons, it is China and the ROK that are on the DPRK's doorstep, not the US, and it is they that will be under the most direct security threat. Hence, China and ROK should make more joint efforts to push for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

China and the ROK both need a stable surrounding environment for their development. If the nuclear issue on the peninsula is utilized by external factors to cause regional insecurity and instability, it will result in the largest losses to China and the ROK instead of others.

China and the ROK should cherish their hard-won friendship and try to persuade the DPRK to abandon its nuclear weapons program and initiate reform and opening-up, which is the only way to develop its economy and safeguard itself.

The author is a guest professor at the School of Finance, Renmin University of China.