Page 179 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

to counter various strategic pressures and containment from
the U.S. as well as contributing to bolstering China’s roles and
influence over the Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asian
geopolitical landscape.

Conversely, China harbors strategic concerns regarding
enhanced multilateral cooperation with Russia and North
Korea. This is due to concerns that trilateral cooperation could
potentially act as another catalyst for the possible emergence
of rival trilateral alignments. China perceives its strategic
benefits to be relatively less favorable compared to those of
the U.S. within the South Korea-U.S.-Japan vs. North Korea-
China-Russia framework. For instance, the U.S. shares the
values of human rights and democracy as well as a political
system based on democracy with South Korea and Japan.
Additionally, the U.S. has built strategic trust with both
countries since the Cold War era.

In contrast, China needs strategic cooperation with Russia
and North Korea but, at the same time, suffers from a lack of
strategic trust with either one. Furthermore, there is a deep
concern about the expanding reliance of Russia and North
Korea on China, which could potentially pose future strategic
burdens in terms of “entrapment.” In particular, China finds
itself in a situation where due to its support for Russia in the
Ukraine war it has to contemplate the possibility of tarnishing
its image among key EU countries, with which it has recently
been seeking strategic approaches and expanding economic
cooperation. Moreover, just as the international community
led by the United States and the EU raised concerns about and
criticized China’s support for Russia, there is a possibility that

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