https://www.scmp.com/rss/323761/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com In the past year, a growing sense of detente on the Korean peninsula has brought about a wave of optimistic real estate purchases in the Chinese city of Dandong, the Asian continent’s main portal to North Korea.  Now that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has again visited China and invited President Xi Jinping for a long-awaited reciprocal visit, is it time to uncork the champagne for Dandong and begin the revival of the northeast Chinese economy via the doorway to Korea? Is Dandong ready to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/asia/article/2182186/was-kim-jong-uns-china-visit-economic-lifeline-dandong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/asia/article/2182186/was-kim-jong-uns-china-visit-economic-lifeline-dandong?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Jan 2019 04:00:30 +0000 As is obvious to anyone watching inter-Korean engagement and cultural diplomacy unfold these past two weeks in Seoul and Pyeongchang, North Korean women are playing leading roles. Whether as cheerleaders, athletes, musicians or diplomatic envoys, North Korea’s push for prominence via the Games has had a feminine visage. But what about the North Korean women we aren’t seeing under the lights of Olympic torches? Analysis of the gendered aspects of North Korean “soft power” is important, but such... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2133397/north-korean-women-lead-way-whether-olympics-or-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2133397/north-korean-women-lead-way-whether-olympics-or-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Feb 2018 03:00:00 +0000 Another week has passed with yet more Korean war talk from the upper echelons in Washington. After undercutting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on conditions for negotiating with North Korea, the White House renewed its emphasis on “the military option” via public statements by National Security Adviser HR McMaster and further rumours that the administration was considering using a “bloody nose” approach consisting of limited attacks on North Korean testing sites. The response of North... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/2125750/opinion-fraying-ties-china-should-be-kim-jong-uns-greatest-worry-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/2125750/opinion-fraying-ties-china-should-be-kim-jong-uns-greatest-worry-us?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Dec 2017 11:08:32 +0000 When looking at North Korea, sometimes it is useful to tune out the Americans altogether and look at who is governing the country internally, and how they are doing it. As the instrument that built and continues to amplify the overarching personality cult of the Kims, the Korean Workers’ Party remains an important vehicle both for controlling and understanding North Korea. On October 7, the party’s Central Committee voted to elevate Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of Kim Jong-un, to the rank of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2115980/sisters-promotion-kim-jong-un-consolidates-familys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2115980/sisters-promotion-kim-jong-un-consolidates-familys?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Oct 2017 09:32:59 +0000 Since the Korean war, China’s relationship with North Korea has been populated with a rich array of metaphors. The two nation’s ties are described variously as being close as lips and teeth, connected by rivers and mountains and forged in the blood bonds of brotherhood – an alliance which is intended to deter attacks from wolfish imperialists. Since China voted to support the implementation of the latest United Nations sanctions against North Korea, these metaphors appear to have gone seriously... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2108385/trade-ties-drive-chinas-delicate-dance-around-north?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2108385/trade-ties-drive-chinas-delicate-dance-around-north?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Aug 2017 05:46:17 +0000 We live in strange times. In the US’ White House, the politics of misinformation have metastasised. Analysts who wish to discuss traditional US security and diplomatic interests in northeast Asia must therefore contend with an array of demented statements by the president, thick performances of outrage by his closest aides against what they call “the fake news industrial complex”, the weird convergence of US foreign policy with Trump family interests, the crimson visions of Steven K. Bannon, and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2103360/white-house-must-conquer-its-own-chaos-and-stop-improvising?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2103360/white-house-must-conquer-its-own-chaos-and-stop-improvising?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Jul 2017 10:00:24 +0000 It is a striking thing when war metaphors take a physical form. On April 14, a succession of beautiful days in the Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture was broken by the arrival of immense dark clouds, heavy rain and flashes of lightning. The suddenly apocalyptic weather coincided with the arrival of rumours that the US military might engage in pre-emptive strikes on nearby North Korea. As the rain lashed down outside his dusty shop, a bookseller in Yanji asked me if I thought April 15 would... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2089944/opinion-chinas-position-north-korea-appears-shift?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2089944/opinion-chinas-position-north-korea-appears-shift?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Apr 2017 13:43:26 +0000 Xi Jinping’s meeting with America’s volatile new president promises some measure of clarity as to how the North Korean issue will play out between Beijing and Washington in the coming years. By now, most readers will have formed strong views about US threats of a pre-emptive strike on North Korea, or the unavoidable controversy over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system and its attendant strategic and commercial anxieties. But less clear than either of these rather... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2085850/opinion-trump-and-xi-jinping-are-impasse-how-deal-north?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2085850/opinion-trump-and-xi-jinping-are-impasse-how-deal-north?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Apr 2017 01:36:07 +0000 No matter what strategic steps are taken by the Chinese government to deal with North Korea, doomsday scenarios appear to be alive and well. In a recent essay for Politico, former Clinton administration official James Rubin argued that China’s cut-off of coal imports from North Korea had by definition made the isolated country much more likely to export chemical and biological weapons to terrorist groups. This is a major stretch of logic, but it is indicative of the “damned if you do, damned if... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2076189/china-north-korea-going-through-rough-patch-break-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2076189/china-north-korea-going-through-rough-patch-break-not?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Mar 2017 06:39:24 +0000 Donald Trump’s bizarre post-election improvisations continue, having now made a crater of sorts in the field of US-China relations. Analysts and journalists have done their best to find the logic underneath Trump’s narcissistic fury, the almost aggressive texture of his ignorance, and the inexplicable pacing of his actions. The editor of Foreign Policy magazine, David Rothkopf, seemed to capture things best when he said that Trump’s pronouncements are “one part lunacy, one part incompetence, one... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2056255/trumpian-absurdism-and-us-china-relations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2056255/trumpian-absurdism-and-us-china-relations?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Dec 2016 03:14:57 +0000