China’s Korea Policy in the Making

Abstract

History and geography have combined to make the Korean Peninsula important to China’s security. Th is importance lies not only in the fact that the peninsula shares a fairly long border with China’s industrial heartland, but it also stems from the convergence—and often the clash—of the interests of Russia, Japan, and the United States in Korea. For the last century, Korea has served as an area of conflict and an invasion corridor for the three powerful states. The Chinese were involved in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, supporting North Korea after the United States intervened on behalf of South Korea. This, together with the close ties between the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Korean Workers Party, led by Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il, which can be traced back to the 1930s, has reinforced the importance of Korea in China’s policy calculations.