Disir
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On Friday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that the United States and China are planning on discussing North Korea’s nuclear program when senior leaders from both sides meet for their annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) next week. Yonhap based its report off comments made by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel during a recent press briefing ahead of the S&ED.
Russel implicitly referenced a joint U.S.-China opposition to North Korea’s “Byungjin Line”—the country’s policy of pursuing the parallel goals of economic development and a robust nuclear weapons program. Russel referred to that policy as a “fantasy,” noting that Pyongyang couldn’t “have its cake and eat it too.” Yonhap, thus, chose to call this out in its headline: “U.S., China to discuss ways to get N. Korea out of ‘fantasy’ of ‘byeongjin’ policy.” Russel notes that the United States and China will:
…accelerate the realization on the part of North Korea’s leadership that negotiations to end their nuclear program are the only path available to them that allows for economic growth. And that’s what we will discuss [at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue].
Russel’s remarks aren’t the first time U.S. officials have taken direct aim at North Korea’s Byungjin line, which was itself adopted during a plenary session of the Party Central Committee in Pyongyang in early 2013. In February 2015, U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (who will be traveling, along with Vice Premier Wang Yang, to Washington for the S&ED next week) “agreed that North Korea would not succeed in its twin pursuit of nuclear weapons and economic development.”
Interestingly, at the time, Chinese press reports outlining the Yang-Rice meeting did not highlight that feature of their meetings. In fact, while the United States’ statement was the clearest indication of a U.S.-China agenda on countering North Korea’s Byungjin policy, China has been reluctant to publicly mention the policy. China continues to stress denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and encourages a return to multilateral diplomacy within the framework of the long-stalled Six-Party Talks.
Is North Korea s Byungjin Line on the US-China Strategic Agenda The Diplomat
I think clarity is in order; however, it would be China that takes the brunt of BS on the border.
Russel implicitly referenced a joint U.S.-China opposition to North Korea’s “Byungjin Line”—the country’s policy of pursuing the parallel goals of economic development and a robust nuclear weapons program. Russel referred to that policy as a “fantasy,” noting that Pyongyang couldn’t “have its cake and eat it too.” Yonhap, thus, chose to call this out in its headline: “U.S., China to discuss ways to get N. Korea out of ‘fantasy’ of ‘byeongjin’ policy.” Russel notes that the United States and China will:
…accelerate the realization on the part of North Korea’s leadership that negotiations to end their nuclear program are the only path available to them that allows for economic growth. And that’s what we will discuss [at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue].
Russel’s remarks aren’t the first time U.S. officials have taken direct aim at North Korea’s Byungjin line, which was itself adopted during a plenary session of the Party Central Committee in Pyongyang in early 2013. In February 2015, U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (who will be traveling, along with Vice Premier Wang Yang, to Washington for the S&ED next week) “agreed that North Korea would not succeed in its twin pursuit of nuclear weapons and economic development.”
Interestingly, at the time, Chinese press reports outlining the Yang-Rice meeting did not highlight that feature of their meetings. In fact, while the United States’ statement was the clearest indication of a U.S.-China agenda on countering North Korea’s Byungjin policy, China has been reluctant to publicly mention the policy. China continues to stress denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and encourages a return to multilateral diplomacy within the framework of the long-stalled Six-Party Talks.
Is North Korea s Byungjin Line on the US-China Strategic Agenda The Diplomat
I think clarity is in order; however, it would be China that takes the brunt of BS on the border.
