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Bloomberg

In discussions between the US and China about reining in North Korea, one topic remains taboo: What would happen if Kim Jong-un’s regime collapses?
For years, China has rebuffed US attempts to raise the topic at so-called Track 2 dialogue sessions between academics in each country’s foreign policy establishment, according to Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, who has led the US side in such talks. 
Attendees included people from Chinese government-affiliated research institutions and military officers, she said.
From China’s perspective, officially broaching the issue could alarm its neighbour, which has received Beijing’s backing since the Korean war in the 1950s.
Top Chinese bank vows to strictly apply UN sanctions on North Korea
There’s also a fear that it would give the US an advantage in one day reunifying the Korean peninsula on its terms.
“When we first started these efforts, the Chinese told us – and many other people, including US officials – that if they engaged in such discussions with the United States it would come out, it would get leaked, North Korea would find out and they would retaliate,” Glaser said.
Still, as the US and North Korea trade threats of military action and Kim develops nuclear weapons, observers are starting to game out worst-case scenarios.
And no matter whether a military miscalculation, coup or other event prompts the demise of Kim, it may not be long before soldiers from the world’s two biggest economies come face-to-face.

The US has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, which has 625,000 troops in its standing army and 3.1 million in reserve.
China has roughly 2 million soldiers, and its Northern Theatre Command bordering North Korea consists of at least three army units and three rocket units.
“If we intervene and the Chinese run into our people and if we run into their people, what are we going to do?” Bruce Bennett, a defence researcher at Rand Corp who wrote a 342-page report in 2013 on policy recommendations in case North Korea collapses, told Bloomberg in a telephone interview. “Are we going to shake hands or what? All of that needs to be really thought about seriously.”
If North Korea starts to collapse, both the US and China are likely to send in troops to secure its weapons of mass destruction, Bennett said.
Most of those sites – including the Yongbyon nuclear plant – are closer to China than South Korea.
What if worst comes to worst with North Korea? China ‘must be ready’ for war on the peninsula
US intelligence officials have concluded that North Korea can miniaturise warheads to fit on missiles, and has as many as 60 nuclear bombs, The Washington Post reported last month.
South Korea’s 2016 Defence White Paper said Pyongyang also has a stockpile of between 2,500 and 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons, and is capable of producing biological agents such as anthrax and smallpox.
Any incursion by Chinese troops into North Korea risks drawing in South Korea, whose constitution covers the entire peninsula.
The authorities in both China and the South would also be worried about large flows of refugees who might flee, particularly if war leads to shortages of food and other essential goods.

Jia Qingguo, dean of the School of International Studies of Peking University, wrote in an article for the East Asia Forum this month that China’s military should consider creating a safety zone within North Korea to prevent a large flow of people into its northeastern provinces.
Authorities in Beijing would probably also want to discuss overseeing any situation that requires the US to move north of the 38th parallel, which the border broadly follows.
These would include securing North Korea’s nuclear weapons and restoring order in Pyongyang, Jia wrote. Another question would be whether to let the international community oversee the formation of a new government in North Korea.
“Beijing doesn’t have a good plan, the US doesn’t have a good plan, and the entire world doesn’t have a good plan,” Jia said by phone.
“It’s beyond the point that a neat solution can be found. So, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.” 
China certainly has planned for worst-case scenarios including refugees and potential nuclear proliferation, said Su Hao, an international relations professor at China Foreign Affairs University, which is affiliated with the country’s foreign ministry.
China advises against unilateral sanctions against North Korea
“It’s strategically premature for China to discuss it with South Korea or the US,” Su said. “However, it’s likely for China to inform Russia because their interests on the peninsula are more aligned.”
In public, all the major powers say they agree on the goal of a denuclearised Korean peninsula.
The US, China and Russia have also said they back the so-called Four Nos: No regime change, regime collapse, accelerated reunification and military deployment north of the 38th parallel.
Still, mistrust remains. Donald Trump’s recent comments to the United Nations that communist and socialist governments are failed ideologies that contribute to human suffering may fuel suspicions within China that the US ultimately seeks regime change in Beijing, according to Glaser at CSIS.
“Let’s remember that the Chinese believe that the ‘colour revolutions’ were really aimed at overthrowing Communism everywhere,” she said, referring to a wave of movements in the former Soviet Union and Balkans in the early 2000s.
“Why would China work with the US and tell it about its contingency plans?” 


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North Korea nuclear crisis

China's biggest North Korea taboo: discussing life after Kim

Kim Jong-un pictured watching a missile test in a North Korean propaganda photo released earlier this month. Photo: EPA-EFE/KCNA

Undated photo from North Korean News Agency shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting a Korean People's Army unit, in an undisclosed location, North Korea. Photo released August 2017. (Balkis Press/Abaca Press/TNS)

This picture taken on September 23, 2017 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 24 shows an anti-US rally in Kim Il-Sung Square in Pyongyang. Tens of thousands of Pyongyang residents gathered in the capital's Kim Il-Sung Square on September 23 to laud leader Kim Jong-Un's denunciation of US President Donald Trump. / AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS / STR / South Korea OUT / REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT ---EDITORS NOTE--- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS THIS PICTURE WAS MADE AVAILABLE BY A THIRD PARTY. AFP CAN NOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, LOCATION, DATE AND CONTENT OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PHOTO IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY AFP. /

News

China

Diplomacy

Beijing fears that airing the topic will alarm its volatile neighbour, but rising tensions mean it may have to confront difficult questions soon


North Korea

Kim Jong-un

China's biggest North Korea taboo: discussing life after Kim

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Beijing fears that airing the topic will alarm its volatile neighbour, but rising tensions mean it may have to confront difficult questions soon

Beijing fears that airing the topic will alarm its volatile neighbour, but rising tensions mean it may have to confront difficult questions soon