북·중 관계의 딜레마

Abstract

This paper examines how China's response to similar military provocations such as North Korea's ICBM launch in 2017 and 2022, has changed and analyzes the causes of the change at the level of individual, national, and international systems. China generally dealt with North Korea in terms of cooperation with the United States in 2017 and clearly sent a message of concern and opposition to North Korea's serial nuclear tests and military provocations. This was to prevent China from being involved in North Korea's provocations, while stably managing Sino-U.S. relations and dispelling the theory of Chinese responsibility raised by the international community. However, instead of worrying about the involvement in North Korea's provocations, China has recently defended North Korea's position and shifted the blame to the U.S. Why is this change occurring in China's response?
 As a result of the study, it is observed that China was excluded from the discussion centered on the South, North, and the U.S. during the 2018-19 denuclearization negotiations, and that China experienced concerns that North Korea might break away from its alliance beyond its problem of diminishing influence on the Korean Peninsula. China's recent changes in response to North Korea's provocations are attributed to complex internal and external factors such as Trump's unpredictable behavior, domestic political circumstances of China and North Korea, the Sino-U.S. conflict since 2018 and the prolonged Ukraine crisis.