Page 26 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

forms of competition rather than through dialogue. He
examines the potential shifts in the strategic environment as a
means of exploring whether those changes may generate new
advantages sufficient to influence the calculations of the other
side. He focuses in particular on how these developments
influence the relationship between China and North Korea,
which has long generated speculation as a factor that has
impeded the realization of Peninsular denuclearization.

In the final chapter on Standing Firm Against North Korea-
China Challenges (Chapter Fourteen), I look deeper into the
question of why China is seen today as a major part of the
problem rather than being part of the solution when it comes
to promoting peace and security in Northeast Asia. I argue
that a peacefully unified, democratic, and denuclearized
Korean Peninsula, even if still aligned with the United States
and Japan under a revitalized trilateral partnership, would
pose less of a threat to China, or to regional stability, than an
increasingly aggressive and assertive nuclear-armed North
Korea does today. Such a “win-win” solution just requires
Beijing to recognize and respect the rule of law and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights that it has sworn to
uphold.

Chapter One : Dealing with North Korea-China Challenges 25