N. Korean Leader Kim Jong-il Meets Chinese President Hu Jintao Kim Jong-il Proves a Difficult Find in Beijing

Not more than a few days ago, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was in China and discussed the North Korean nuclear issue. With Kim’s visit following close behind, it’s enough to make some wonder whether we’re on the verge of some turning point in the discussions between the United States, China and North Korea over the nuclear issue. One suspects this even more when you see how China has recently been moving quite actively toward finding a solution to the nuclear crisis. This is a critical moment in which our government must pay close attention.

North Korea is in such a situation that it would find it difficult to survive day to day without Chinese petroleum and food aid. In this situation, the Chinese leadership’s opinion of North Korea has grown increasingly negative and critical, and it seems to have grown even more so recently. In particular, this fourth-generation of Chinese leaders, led by President Hu Jintao, has been accelerating China’s market reforms and has attached considerable importance to the nation’s relationship with the United States. North Korea, which is tarnishing China’s international image through the defector issue and causing confrontation with the U.S. through its nuclear weapons development, can be nothing but a burden to China.

During this visit, Kim must understand what it is that China’s leaders and citizens think of North Korea and what it is that they want of it. From this standpoint, it is quite significant that this is Kim’s first meeting with President Hu. If this is simply another incomprehensible example of North Korea’s internal and foreign strategy, then even this China trip will have very little chance of success.

Concerning North Korea’s internal economic problems, too, Kim must listen to China’s advice on reform and deepen its “Chinese lessons.” It has become clear that the North’s “7.1 Economic Management Reform Measures” from two years ago have ended in almost complete failure. The biggest reason is that those reforms were emergency measures that totally avoided basic reform measures like the permission of private farming, and what’s more, the North was unable to secure outside aid. Rather than simply being envious of China’s vibrant economic growth and shallowly trying to imitate it like he did with the “Shinuiju Special Economic Zone,” he must deeply examine the substantive meanings behind the path of reform China has walked and gather lessons from that.