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It's going to be fascinating from a number of perspectives to see a Korean President
in Beijing speaking to the Chinese leadership in fluent Chinese. In addition to her excellent
English, she also speaks Chinese very well. I'll be interested to see how the Chinese
react to that.
Beyond that there are, all around, new leaders we're dealing with here.
President Park's
predecessor, President Lee, had a proper but occasionally difficult relationship with the
Chinese. I think one of the greatest steps forward in Chinese-ROK relations has already
taken place, and this invitation was offered and accepted. I think the bilateral relationship
between Beijing and Seoul is already in a better place, and I think that's a good thing.
In going to Beijing, I think President Park has an opportunity to take advantage of the
ongoing tactical shift by China with respect to the Korean Peninsula, and to use this opportunity
to try to get China to engage in some new and expanded thinking about the future of
the Korean Peninsula. I think it's very important that the Chinese leadership begin to do what
many Chinese scholars are already doing, which is looking at the end game on the Korean Peninsula
and getting the Chinese leadership to understand that North Korea is, at the end of the day,
not a sustainable entity. The Chinese leadership needs to begin thinking about what the future
of that Peninsula will look like when the day finally comes that North Korea, one way
or the other, leaves the scene.
The President of the ROK needs to make the case in Beijing
that North Korea is increasingly
a strategic liability for China. The level of tensions that North Korea creates, its
determination to keep and even expand its nuclear weapons and missile capabilities,
the very troublesome behavior that we've seen from North Korea in recent months, its threat
to use nuclear weapons and all of those things necessarily require a very strong and very
clear response by the United States, the ROK and others in the region. Part of that response
is a military response, which is certainly not in China's interest.
A fundamental point that I think needs to be made by President Park is a point that
I believe President Obama has made to the Chinese—that the North Koreans are not their
friends. On paper they may be an ally of China's, but they are not doing China or China's security
environment any good. I'm fairly confident that President Park will make those points.
There is a growing economic people-to-people social relationship between the ROK and China.
If you look at the trade numbers and the mutual exchange of visitors and delegations, there's
a tremendously lively relationship right now between the PRC and the ROK. That's a good
thing. And another collateral message that needs to be conveyed to the Chinese by President
Park is that this is the future. This is what the Korean Peninsula's relationship with China
could look like in a much broader and more significant way. I think that would be a message
that would be reassuring to Beijing.
At the end of the day, I think the President of the ROK needs to plant the seed in the
mind of the Chinese leadership that there is a different future for the Korean Peninsula:
one that would contribute in a significant way to peace and stability in Northeast Asia,
and contribute to China's own strategic interests in Northeast Asia. I hope, from an American's
perspective that, that message is conveyed.