Op-Ed Contributors

What the future holds for DPRK

By Wang Sheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-16 07:48

Stephen Bosworth, US special envoy on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Sung Kim, special envoy for the Six-Party Talks, and other US officials arrived in China Wednesday to discuss the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

The Six-Party Talks, aimed at ending the DPRK's nuclear program peacefully, have not been held since Pyongyang withdrew from the last one in April 2009.

The sinking of Cheonan, a Republic of Korea (ROK) corvette, in March this year aggravated regional tension. Exploiting the incident, the US and the ROK consolidated their military alliance and conducted a series of large-scale military drills, targeting the DPRK. Pyongyang condemned the exercises as preparation for an invasion, and threatened counteraction, leading the peninsula to the "edge of a war".

The UN Security Council condemned the sinking of the ROK's warship, but did not blame the DPRK for the incident. The DPRK then expressed the hope of returning to the talks.

China, as a responsible country, has mediated among the parties concerned. To maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia and get the talks back on track, Wu Dawei, China's special representative for the Korean Peninsula, has conducted shuttle diplomacy with the DPRK, the ROK, Japan, the US and Russia since Aug 16.

Though the five countries have their own calculations, all of them are willing to work for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks. Restarting the Six-Party Talks is the best way to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula despite the controversy over the sinking of Cheonan.

The DPRK's stability is not only of utmost importance for China, but also in the interest of the US, the ROK and the rest of Asia. Pyongyang needs a relatively friendly and stable environment inside and outside the country because of the Conference of Workers' Party of Korea.

Financial sanctions imposed on Pyongyang by the international community, suspended foreign assistance because of its nuclear program, the allegedly failed domestic monetary reform and severe floods in recent months have created more difficulties for the DPRK economy.

Hence, the DPRK's top priority is to make efforts for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks, because they could restore the flow of foreign assistance to it. During talks with President Hu Jintao in Changchun, capital of Jilin province, visiting DPRK leader Kim Jong-il said he wanted to maintain close communication and coordination with China to push for early resumption of the Six-Party Talks and ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

In the upcoming US mid-term elections, the Democrats might lose majority in Congress. The Barack Obama administration, too, wants the Six-Party Talks to resume, because it would help it, at least temporarily, to steer clear of the "political reef" created by sinking of Cheonan.

After the Cheonan incident, China engaged in spirited diplomatic mediation. The US, too, carried out a series of diplomatic actions. And former US president Jimmy Carter, who had helped defuse a nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula earlier, visited Pyongyang from Aug 25 to 27.