Retired PLA general voices frustration with capricious North Korea

A retired Chinese general has written a scathing critique of North Korea, comparing its current situation to ancient times when campaigns to “bring peace” to the Korean peninsula cost imperial China dearly.

“Historically, this [area] has again and again developed into an [area] of strategic offence and defence, and has often become a threat to the central government, even leading to disastrous consequences,” retired Lieutenant General Wang Hongguang, 63, wrote in an article for National Humanity History magazine, a subsidiary publication of the People’s Daily.

Wang detailed how instability in Korea had brought down the Chinese Sui dynasty in the seventh century and how it had “accelerated colonialisation” of China by Western powers in the 19th century. The Korean War in the 1960s “has been a burden on China for sixty years,” wrote Wang, a former deputy commander of the Nanjing military region. “It is still affecting the country’s unification and development.”

His article coincides with South Korean intelligence stating that North Korea has re-activated its main nuclear reactor, the Yongbyon complex, which is able to produce enough plutonium to make one atomic bomb per year.

“We cannot underestimate North Korea’s commitment to have nuclear weapons,” wrote Wang. “Now we have to clearly point out to North Korea that, no matter whether they conduct another nuclear test or not, nuclear contamination cannot directly affect our national territory.”