North Korea and US likely to resume talks whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden win 2020 election, China expert on Pyongyang says
- Zhang Liangui of the Central Party School says North Korea could pose a security threat to China, especially if US lets Pyongyang keep part of its nuclear arsenal
- ‘If a regime is struggling for survival, it may drag someone down with it,’ he said
A Chinese Communist Party expert on North Korea says the country could pose a security threat to China and expects talks between Pyongyang and Washington to resume whether or not US President Donald Trump wins a second term in November.
Zhang Liangui, professor of international strategic research at the Central Party School, said that the demolition of the inter-Korea liaison office in the border city of Kaesong last month highlighted the geopolitical risk China faced should ties between North and South Korea become unstable.
“If one day North Korea takes military actions against the South, geopolitics dictates that China, as a neighbouring country, will inevitably be dragged into it, whether we like it or not,” he said.
The Central Party School is both a think tank and a training school for Chinese leaders. Zhang, who has studied Korean issues for decades, is considered one of China’s top experts on North Korea.
He said that the destruction of the liaison office by North Korea last month was meant to show Pyongyang’s displeasure with Seoul over issues such as South Korea’s ties to the United States, and its failures to provide economic assistance and help to lift sanctions on North Korea.
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North Korea ‘blows up’ inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong
Taking advantage of the thaw between the two Koreas after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, North Korea launched the “special envoy diplomacy” with South Korea in February 2018.