China’s Plan to Denuclearize North Korea: A New World Order Emerges?
China seeks to leverage President Trump’s aversion to multilateralism and his pursuit of bilateral relations with North Korea to strengthen its own ties with Japan and South Korea. This strategy involves promoting trilateral cooperation on North Korean denuclearization, including President Xi Jinping’s planned attendance at the APEC summit in South Korea and support for a future leaders’ summit. This initiative, which includes academic exchanges currently spearheaded by Tsinghua University, aims to ultimately involve government officials and potentially counter growing North Korea-Russia military cooperation. China’s actions follow a period of strained relations with North Korea over its military support for Russia in the Ukraine conflict.
John Q. Hosedrinker