US muscle flexing not a cure to DPRK issue

A surface-to-surface medium- and long-range ballistic missile Pukguksong-2 is test-fired by DPRK on Jan 12, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

China will not import coal from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for the rest of 2017, the Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday. The ministry's decision to suspend coal imports is in line with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2321, which was adopted on Nov 30 to tighten sanctions on the DPRK in response to its fifth nuclear test in September.

Beijing strongly supports the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and is willing to go to great lengths to discourage Pyongyang from developing nuclear weapons. It has not only pledged to uphold the Security Council resolutions against Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, but also made sure its ministries carry through the sanctions. The ban on coal imports is a case in point.

However, other big countries involved in the DPRK nuclear issue should shoulder their responsibilities as well, rather than just demand China do more.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that preparations were underway to bring senior DPRK officials to the US for the "Track 1.5" talks with former US officials. That may explain why many in the West still blame China for "not shouldering its due responsibility" to "act tough" on the DPRK's nuclear program.

Before taking office, US President Donald Trump said that China has "total control" over the DPRK and threatened Beijing with trade barriers if it did not "resolve the problem". US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has more than once echoed those statements. Such a perception is far from true, because the DPRK is an independent country that has its own policies.

During his visit to Seoul earlier this month, Tillerson also reiterated the US' commitment to the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in the Republic of Korea, to counter the nuclear threat from the DPRK. And reports say the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group, which began its "routine operations" in the South China Sea on Saturday, is likely to join the US-ROK joint drill next month.

The intentions behind dubious moves go beyond keeping the DPRK in check. But making China the scapegoat for the volatile situation on the Korean Peninsula is not just unfair but also untrue. China has mobilized considerable diplomatic resources to push for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks and implement its "dual-track" proposal that includes denuclearization and commitment to the DPRK's security.

The root cause of the DPRK nuclear issue lies in the strategic misjudgments made by the Pyongyang and Washington both, as well as the Cold War mentality that continues to plague the Korean Peninsula. Washington is still waiting for Pyongyang's "sudden change" while the latter believes it can seek security only by becoming a stronger "nuclear power". And the increasingly frequent US-ROK joint exercises have made things worse.

The truth is that only Washington can give Pyongyang the security guarantee it wants, and playing the sanction card or deepening the US-ROK military cooperation will not end the seesaw game. Waiting for the DPRK to succumb to pressure, as experience shows, will not resolve the peninsula issue. As such, dialogues, not flexing of muscles, are still the only cure to the DPRK nuclear issue.

The author is a researcher of Asia-Pacific strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.