The Second North Korean Nuclear Crisis After The Rok And China's Policy Toward North Korea Comparative Study

The relations between the ROK and the P.R.C. evolve gradually from the initial hostile one which started from the Korean War into friendly and cooperative one since the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1992. At the time of establishing diplomatic relations, political, cultural and ideological differences between the ROK and the P.R.C. still existed. The ROK-P.R.C. relations mainly focused on the economic aspect in initial period. After Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun had taken office as President in the ROK, they adopted friendly policies ---"The Sunshine Policies"and"The Policies of Peace and Prosperity"toward the DPRK. Since then, the ROK-P.R.C. relations developed forward gradually.The second DPRK nuclear crisis in 2002 coincides with the inauguration of the Roh Moo Hyun administration. Although the ROK government persisted the friendly policies toward the DPRK, the people of ROK felt distrust toward the DPRK as the result of recent DPRK nuclear crisis. Therefore, the ROK government's policies toward the DPRK faced many difficulties, being subjected to severe criticism. At the same time, the P.R.C. government adopted the positive and interventional policies during the second DPRK nuclear crisis, and established"Six-party Talks"mechanism soon after Hu Jin Tao had just taken office as President of the P.R.C. And the P.R.C. has been playing a dominant and positive go-between role in the process of the Talks. The P.R.C. and the DPRK gradually regained the previous traditional friendly relations. Communication of all levels between two governments and the two ruling parties began to be active, including the top leaders.After Lee Myung bak had taken office as President in the ROK in 2008, the ROK-P.R.C. relations changed. Although the ROK and the P.R.C. had established"Strategic cooperative partnership", the ROK government attached more importance to restore the ROK-US alliance relations. Simultaneously, the P.R.C. government attached more importance to restore the traditional friendly P.R.C.-DPRK relations. The development of the ROK-P.R.C. relations was faced with serious challenges. The author thinks that"Tian-an naval vessel accident"and"Yan-ping's island bombardment accident"happened in 2010 showed the ROK and the P.R.C. still need cooperation with and comprehension between each other in their policies toward the DPRK.The DPRK is experiencing a vital time at present. The leader Kim Jong Il had just reached to 70 years old recently, and his successor Kim Jong Un still haven't enjoyed a solid foundation for a stable succession. Both the ROK and the P.R.C. have a special strategy and security interests in the DPRK. In the position of the ROK, the people of both the ROK and the DPRK share the same language, culture and history, and the people are an object that must be unified. The P.R.C. believes that both the P.R.C. and the DPRK are socialist countries. And as fellow soldiers in the Korean War, they have a special relationship with military aid obligations in the"P.R.C-DPRK Mutual friendship-cooperation treaty". Both the ROK and the P.R.C. are contiguous to the DPRK. If an emergence such as the regime collapse occurred in the DPRK, both of them would suffer a lot. Hence the cooperation between the ROK and the P.R.C. in the policies toward the DPRK is largely necessary.However, the ROK and the P.R.C. have their respective strategic and security interests, and they consider different strategic interests in the policies toward the DPRK. The author considers that the cooperation of the ROK and the P.R.C. in their policies toward the DPRK is not optimistic to some degree. The ROK and the P.R.C. have different understandings of the DPRK, the DPRK nuclear issue, the fundamental nature of the policies toward the DPRK and the US's role. Moreover, the P.R.C. recently strengthens traditional friendly P.R.C.-DPRK relations, as the ROK strengthens the ROK-US alliance relations. And, the barriers such as a sentimental conflicts and different points of view still exist between the two nations.This paper mainly applies comparative analysis methods, supplementing by levels analysis methods and statistical analysis methods. The researching subject is limited to the post Second DPRK Nuclear Crisis. What is the effect on the ROK and the P.R.C. in the second DPRK nuclear crisis? What are the ROK and the P.R.C. policies toward the DPRK? What are the characteristics of their policies? What are the decisive factors? How about the future of the ROK and the P.R.C. policies toward the DPRK? How are the possibilities of the cooperation between the ROK and the P.R.C. in their policies toward the DPRK? If there is little possibility of the cooperation, what are the reasons? Why must the ROK and the P.R.C. strengthen the cooperative relations in the ROK and the P.R.C. policies toward the DPRK? How to improve the ROK-P.R.C. relations in order to increase the possibility of the cooperation?The author hopes to study these questions and provide some useful suggestion in this paper. The author studies the second DPRK nuclear crisis and makes an analysis of the influence of the ROK and the P.R.C. first of all. Then, the author studies the ROK's and the P.R.C.'s policies toward the DPRK, the decisive factors and the future development directions. The author finally prospects the cooperation between the ROK and the P.R.C. in their policies toward the DPRK. The conclusion drawn by the author is that the prospect of the cooperation of the two nation's policies toward the DPRK is not optimistic. Nevertheless, for the continuous development of the ROK-P.R.C. mutual strategic interests and friendly cooperation relationship, mutual understanding and cooperation are only rational and realistic choices.