The Relationship Between North Korea And China (Research Paper Sample)

China and North Korea Relationships
Student’s Name
Institution
China and North Korea Relationships
Introduction
The year 1949 marked the beginning of the relationship between China and North Korea. Since then, the two nations have had close diplomatic associations. To prove their close relationship, China established an embassy in Pyongyang, North Korean’s major capital city while North Korea also has an embassy in Beijing, China. However, the relationship between the two nations started declining after North Korea announced its nuclear program. Despite their lack of agreement on nuclear weapons, China remains North Korea's primary supplier of its imports. This essay discusses how and why the associations between the two countries have changed.
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The Good Relationship Between North Korea and China
North Korea and China’s relationship commenced in 1949, when Zhou Enlai, China’s first Premier transcribed to the North Korean government, asking if he can create diplomatic associations with Korea. The relationship officially began in 1950 when China backed Korea in the Korean War by deploying its soldiers in the Korean Peninsula. In 1953, after the Korean war ended, the Chinese government offered economic support to Korea (Smith, 2017). In 1961, China and Korea signed a Friendship Treaty for the purpose of encouraging peaceful collaboration in economy, culture, and technology. From this year, China vowed to help North Korea in case it was at war with any nation.
Since 1995, China has been providing food and energy aid to Pyongyang. China, South Korea, and Japan have produced more than 60 percent of food assistance to North Korea since the mid-1990s (Smith, 2017). In this period, North Korea suffered a great famine which resulted in lack of food hence leading to the death of thousands of people. However, when the Six-Party Talks malformed, South Korea and Japan stopped donating food to North Korea, but China continued proving Korea the food assistance. Therefore, China enabled North Korea to rebuild its economy by ensuring that the country had workers who had enough food that could allow them to work for North Korean firms (Albert, 2016).
China and North Korea trade have rapidly increased from the year 2000 from $ 500 to $ 7 billion in 2014. North Korea actually relies on China for trade because China imports 40 percent of its exports and North Korea's imports from China amount to 60 percent (Smith, 2017). For instance, in 2015, North Korea imported goods worth 3 billion from China and China imported products worth 2.9 billion from North Korea (Albert, 2016). Today, North Korea acknowledges China as its only financial backer. In 2015, the two nations created a bulk cargo and a shipping route that enabled North Korea to carry out coal exportation quickly. Furthermore, China also promoted North Korean trade by being the country that bought a significant percentage of North Korean coal. North Korea depends on coal as the primary source of unfluctuating currency: therefore, coal is crucial to its economy.
Without China, a large percentage of North Korean industries will collapse because their survival depends on the availability of coal. China is responsible for supplying coal to North Korea (Smith, 2017). Statistics reveal that China exports approximately 500, 000 tons of oil every year to North Korea, which has no domestic oil creation. Apart from China, North Korea also imports oil from Russia, but the amount of oil from this nation is not adequate to support North Korean firms (Albert, 2016). Despite the fact that a large percentage of North Korean energy comes from coal, the country needs oil for military, transport, and agricultural purposes. Therefore, without China, North Korea will be weak because it depends on crude oil for manufacturing its military weapons. Furthermore, transportation will also be impossible because it depends on China’s crude oil (Huang & Perlez, 2017).
Why Jong-un Kim is a Problem
Kim Jong-un, a 33-year old North Korean Supreme Leader, possesses one of the largest number of official positions that a North Korean government official has ever owned. Kim is one of the youngest head of state today, and people know him for his spoilt nature. He has bad behavior, and he is also very disrespectful: sources reveal that his dangerous nature arose from his spoilt childhood (Bowden, 2015). He was highly respected by senior government officials when he was very young hence making him believe that he could do whatever he wanted to do. People respected him because he was the only Kim Jong Un left. He was so harsh that he demanded all Koreans that had the Kim Jong-Un name to alter it so that he becomes the only person in the country that uses the name.
All the United Nation members dislike Kim that they voted for his eviction. These members also demanded that Kim must go before the International Criminal Court where he must be tried for wrongdoings against people. Many scholars have revealed that Kim is unprofessional because of his overindulgence in alcohol abuse (Bowden, 2015). He also adopts brutal punishments to his people, and sources tell that he murdered his uncle's family with machine guns. He has also taken part in destroying China's relationship with North Korea because he has tortured and imprisoned Chinese people that have tried to cross the North Korean border.
The fact that Kim dislikes and abuses immigrants will also spoil the North Korean-China relationship because it will result in a big problem which is that of millions of foreigners flocking to China. Furthermore, China fears to trade with North Korea because it fears that Kim’s dictatorship might lead to the collapse of the country. Historians reveal that Kim inherited his grandfather’s dictatorship leadership style. Today, Kim is one of the greatest dictators in the world. He is so powerful in his country that no member of North Korean government can dare to advise him. He has even failed to tighten North Korea’s relationship with China because Chinese government officials are now unable to negotiate deals with him. Kim is known for acting unpredictably and wildly even while trying to establish diplomatic associations with China.
Furthermore, Kim has made North Korea a threat hence making it difficult to establish trade relationships with other nations including China. This president is said to lead to the downfall of the North Korean economy because he is using the country's money on unnecessary projects. For example, he has created a very expensive facility in Masik Pass instead of using the funds to provide financial and food aid to North Koreans who are now suffering from hunger (Bowden, 2015). He has also encouraged black market trade because he has not done anything to stop the illicit trade. The rampant black markets and excessive spending on unnecessary projects have made China reduce its trade with North Korea because the country does not seem to have a stable economy shortly. Many Chinese businesspeople have also closed their industries that they established in North Korea because they fear that they will collapse. Kim mainly damaged his relationship with China when he went against the rules and regulations that governed the friendship between the two nations. Kim refused to meet with a high-status Chinese envoy that the Chinese government sent to him so that he discusses with it about the missile tests.
How The Nuclear Weapon Has Affected North Korean Transnational Status
Since the year 2006, North Korea has conducted some nuclear tests that have made many nations to see the country as a threat. Some countries have withdrawn their relationships with North Korea because they do not want to associate themselves with the country. Any relationship with North Korea will make a nation appear as a threat to the world (Lee, 2015). Today, many countries hate North Korea because they fear that the country will provoke a third World War. Furthermore, a significant number of countries have also stopped trading with North Korea because they fear the sanctions that the United States (U.S) will impose against them if they trade with North Korea. In 2016, the U.S government formulated sanctions against countries that took part in the creation of North Korean weapons (Lee, 2015). Furthermore, it also sanctioned the nations that provided metals to North Korea because they were said to promote the development of nuclear weapons. Apart from the U.S the United Nations (U. N), Japan, and the European Union also sanctioned countries that traded metals with North Korea.
Many countries now perceive North Korea as a ruthless nation that does not care about harming the world. North Korea justifies its nuclear tests by claiming tha...