Firmer hand won’t sever DPRK relations

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) declared Saturday the Korean Peninsula is entering a "state of war," escalating the situation once more.

China needs to cooperate more deeply on this issue with the US. This doesn't mean an alliance, since China's position is that the six parties involved should cooperate as peers.

Strategic cooperation between China and the US on the DPRK's nuclear issue is very significant. Such cooperation is not only possible, but is practically needed. The degree of the cooperation can influence other countries involved in the issue.

For a long time, despite ideological differences, China and the US have shared common interests on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and maintaining the stability there.

China's policy toward DPRK should shift over time, but it should not be done at the cost of losing China's influence or causing confrontations with DPRK.

The US attitude toward DPRK should also be more positive and constructive. Obviously, in the future, cooperation between China and the US will be of particular significance in resolving or controlling the crisis following the DPRK's nuclear test.

Some worry that cooperation between China and the US will undermine China's influence on DPRK. But this is unlikely to happen any time soon.

If DPRK really turns to the US, it will lose its flexibility to make strategic choices. The US will be in the driving position and keep DPRK under control.

China should maintain its normal state-to-state relationship with DRPK, and prevent this relationship from deteriorating. China should continue to promote a soft landing for the situation on the peninsula. However, at the same time, it should make DRPK realize that a soft landing doesn't equal tolerance toward DPRK's possession of nuclear weapons or constant nuclear tests.

China should prevent DPRK from continuing its wrong path. Putting necessary pressure on it seems inevitable. In the long run, China should persistently help DPRK to move toward openness, which will benefit the DPRK people and regional peace and prosperity.

DPRK is walking on the edge of the cliff. The more it blusters about war, the stronger the desire it has for peace. It wants to sue for peace by raising the specter of war.

But the precondition of such strategy is that DPRK believes other countries are more afraid than itself about a war. Cooperation on coping with war risks among China, the US and some other countries will fundamentally change DPRK's grave misjudgments.

Without China's positive and just mediation, the US cannot achieve true reconciliation with DPRK.

If the relationship between China and the US worsens, the strategic value of DPRK will rise. So DPRK may be glad to see disagreements between China and the US, which will allow it to bargain with the two countries separately.

Thus cooperation between China and the US on the DPRK's nuclear issue will help China maintain its influence on DPRK and enhance global strategic collaboration between China and the US.

Only by establishing multilateral security mechanism based on the Six-Party Talks and using the assurance of regional security to maintain the security of relevant countries, can the DPRK's nuclear problem be fundamentally resolved.

If the US is not determined to resolve the problem by safeguarding regional security, there's no possibility for other relevant countries, including China, to resolve this problem. The US is not so na ve as to believe that the DPRK's nuclear issue can be resolved by China itself.

On the overall cooperation between China and the US, the US cannot shirk its responsibility or shift focus. It is also unreasonable for the US to use traditional alliances to control regional security while asking China, which has no bilateral or multilateral regional security guarantees, to be responsible for regional security.

The author is a professor at China Foreign Affairs University.