Page 19 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

analysis highlights the necessity of disrupting North Korea
and China’s ambitions to weaken the U.S. alliance network
by fostering a defense-dominance situation, countering
miscalculations, and averting simultaneous provocations
in Northeast Asia. It also underscores the importance of
preventing deeper military integration between North Korea
and China through strategic pressure while advocating a more
aggressive approach to disentangle North Korea-China ties.

In Chapter Three, Colonel Grant Newsham (USMC, ret.),
a senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic
Studies, asserts that Beijing Prefers an Aggressive and
Provocative North Korea, further arguing that North Korea,
ruled by the Kim family regime, is of considerable value to
China and that this value far outweighs any difficulties and
headaches caused by the Kim family’s mercurial behavior.
He believes, as a basic strategic matter, that China does not
want a country that is democratic and allied with the United
States (and hosting U.S. military forces) on its border, which
would be the case if the Korean Peninsula was unified under
South Korean control. This reason alone is enough for China
to protect and support the Kim regime. But, he argues, there’s
much more, seeing North Korea as an “excellent distraction”
that would tie down U.S. forces in the event of a Taiwan
contingency. The North Korean threat also creates a sense of
“dependency” on China, whose cooperation (mistakenly, in
Newsham’s view) is considered vital in Washington and Seoul
when it comes to dealing with Pyongyang.

Professor Narushige Michishita from the National Graduate
Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo then discusses

18 Section I : North Korea-China Relations: How and Why Does Beijing Protect and Empower Pyongyang?