China-North Korea Relations in the Kim Jong-Un Era

Abstract

Like the U.S.-Japan relationship, China’s Gordian knot with its only Northeast Asian ally, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, remains fundamentally stable even as it sits on the cusp of irreversible change. This presentation will investigate Beijing and Pyongyang’s mutual feelings of suppressed anger and ongoing dependency, beginning with a gloss on new documents from the PRC Foreign Ministry Archive focusing on overseas Chinese in North Korea and the peculiar regard of the Kim family (and the Korean Workers' Party) toward the Chinese Communist Party, allowing for a baseline of continuity in how we regard the relationship.