China’s North Korea Policy: Why Is There No Policy Shift?

Since the end of the Korean War, China’s foreign policy has aimed at nurturing a North Korea that would accommodate Chinese interest in terms of regional stability and security, prosperous neighbor relations and geopolitical strategy. Although China’s North Korea policy has revealed several shortcomings in recent years, the leadership has not yet been able to respond effectively to emerging challenges including North Korea’s brinkmanship and growing international frustration.The purpose of this thesis is to characterize China’s policy towards North Korea, understand the motives that lie behind the continuation of the unique Sino-North Korean alliance, and determine why the policy is not likely to evolve in the coming future despite growing external and internal pressure. A second objective is to analyze the panel of policy options available to the Chinese government and which might be envisaged if a policy shift was to occur.