Page 147 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) apparatus and the Korean
People’s Army (KPA). A new organization called the Military
Guidance Government Department was formed to impose
discipline and carry out anti-corruption measures in the
7
KPA. Still, corruption continues to play a dual role: On the
one hand, the regime relies on corruption and predating the
markets for its survival; on the other hand, informal economic
activity presents the potential to undermine the regime’s
grip on power. Moreover, China’s new anti-spy law has made
operations nearly impossible for both non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) attempting to send information from
China into North Korea and NGOs tasked to assist and
rescue North Korean refugees from China.

How and Why is Beijing Empowering Pyongyang’s
Human Rights Denial?

China-North Korea relations have had their ups and downs.
From a relationship akin to “lips and teeth” during and after
the Korean War, relations were at a low point during the
Chinese Cultural Revolution and during the early years of
the Kim Jong-Un regime. And yet, China has continued to
be North Korea’s protector and ally. North Korea is China’s
only formal ally. To China, North Korea continues to be a
vassal, a satellite state, bargaining leverage, a buffer state,
and a thorn in the side of the United States. Despite sporadic
unpleasantness in bilateral relations and North Korea’s
sometimes unruly behavior, China has continued to enable the

7 Ibid., 22–23.

146 Section II : Human Rights, Abductees, Forced Repatriation of Refugees and the Regional Implications