While sanctioning Chinese entities that are evading sanctions to do business with North Korea is a key step, the administration should continue to go after non-Chinese actors engaged in sanctioned activities with North Korea.
President Trump made lots of people a little nervous last week, tweeting that China had been “helpful” on North Korea but that “It just hasn’t worked out.” As if resigned to the inevitable, he typed “At least it tried”.
Considering China and Korea’s shared appreciation for Go, as well as the massive press AlphaGo has received, might Go serve as a way of improving the currently frayed relations between China and Korea?
Despite the Chinese preparation for a political/military contingency in North Korea, however, a North Korea contingency due to damage its research reactors core causing the core to burn or a nuclear meltdown at its light water reactor is much less discussed in the Chinese policy community.
China’s punitive economic measures against South Korea over THAAD may have shrouded Beijing-Seoul relations in uncertainty, yet they highlight Korea’s economic dependence on China.
Beijing has approved the broadcast of a new Korean drama that had been co-produced by a Korean and a Chinese company, according to a source in the Chinese entertainment industry, making it the first Korean show to get the green light since before the THAAD spat.
As the new Moon Jae-in administration begins to put its personnel in place, one of the more challenging international relations to manage will be North Korea.
More than any other sanction imposed on the country, a cutoff of Chinese crude oil, translated into price hikes, angry customers, and slashed revenues, would cause big problems for Kim Jong-un.
The next administration will come into office at time when South Korea faces a wide array of economic, political, social, and security challenges.
It’s official – new numbers from March confirm that China’s THAAD retaliation has significantly cut into South Korea’s tourism industry.