China has spelt out its DPRK policy

The Six-Party Talks, initiated in 2003 but stalled for the last six years, could help resolve the DPRK nuclear issue. Yet the lack of mutual trust and shared interests has made it difficult for the six parties - the DPRK, the ROK, China, the US, Japan and Russia - to resume the talks.

Moreover, Washington, now distracted by the Ukrainian crisis and the Islamic State's expansion in the Middle East, has never been sincere enough to resolve the DPRK nuclear issue. Instead, it has been using it to strategically contain China and Russia. Therefore, China has to think outside the "Six-Party Talks" box to take more effective measures to pursue nuclear non-proliferation in East Asia.

To begin with, it should push for permanent peace instead of temporary truce on the Korean Peninsula.

China should also call for compromise among all parties because demonizing, sanctions and military drills have failed to mellow the DPRK. The fact remains that only convincing negotiations can make the DPRK agree to give up its nuclear program.

Moreover, Pyongyang has to understand that the blind pursuit of nuclear program will only harm its economic and social development, as well as antagonize the international community. It also should understand that non-proliferation is not an attempt to maintain US hegemony in the world; on the contrary, it benefits most countries willing to maintain a stable world order.

For a rising China, the destabilizing factors in the Northeast Asia are not only the DPRK and its nuclear program. Japan, as a close ally of the US, is making efforts to amend its pacifist Constitution to exercise the right to collective defense, and the "pivot to Asia" policy of the US aims to drag China into confrontations with its Asian allies such as the Philippines.

Given these facts, it is important for the world to know China policy toward the DPRK. By criticizing a recent UN resolution, which proposed to refer Pyongyang to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, and declaring that such issues should be left to the DPRK people to decide, Beijing has made the decision.

The author is the director of the Department of International Political Science, Yanbian University, Jilin province.