韓国の取り込みに自信を深めたのか、維持コストに嫌気がさしたのか、国際社会へのアピールと北鮮への脅しか・・・
それにしてもＦＴって面白いねえ
China could accept Korean unification
By Christian Oliver in Seoul and Geoff Dyer in Beijing
Published: November 30 2010 06:53
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a674cb64-fc45-11df-a9c5-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=Late_headline1/NL/APDecember2010/Vanilla_asiapc/0/#axzz17gTxHDJa
A progressive new generation of Chinese officials is telling international counterparts that Beijing could ultimately accept the Korean peninsula unifying under Seoul’s control, according to leaked US diplomatic dispatches.Reports published on the WikiLeaks website on Tuesday undermine suggestions that China would forever defend the status quo on the Korean peninsula, in spite of Beijing’s refusal to condemn Pyongyang for shelling of South Korean island last week and torpedoing one of Seoul’s warships in March.
In a diplomatic cable earlier this year, Chun Yung-woo, then South Korea’s vice-foreign minister, told the US ambassador to Seoul that Chinese officials had assured him that North Korea “now had little value to China as a buffer state”.
Many political analysts argue that Beijing supports the regime of Kim Jong-il in North Korea to prevent South Korea’s lively democracy reaching China’s border and triggering social unrest.
According to the dispatch, Mr Chun, now national security adviser to Lee Myung-bak, South Korea’s president, said China was less keen to keep Mr Kim as a buffer after he tested a nuclear warhead in 2006. The Chinese officials told Mr Chun they could accept a unified peninsula as long as US troops remained in what is currently South Korea.
However, Mr Chun’s remarks to the US ambassador also revealed doubts about whether such views from “sophisticated Chinese officials” were mainstream in Beijing.
Chinese foreign ministry officials are already perceived as critical of North Korea, while Kim Jong-il enjoys far greater favour in powerful Communist party and military camps.
Illustrating this point clearly, Mr Chun described Wu Dawei, China’s special representative on Korea affairs, as an “arrogant, Marx-spouting former Red Guard who knows nothing about North Korea, nothing about non-proliferation and is hard to communicate with because he doesn’t speak English”.
The divides are also increasingly seen in Chinese public life. While some older Chinese remember the sense of joint endeavour and sacrifice of the 1950-1953 Korean war, many younger Chinese are embarassed by the ties with the sclerotic regime in Pyongyang, which for many is a reminder of China’s dark days under Mao Zedong.
Revealing something of South Korea’ strategic thinking, Mr Chun said he expected North Korea to survive two or three years beyond the death of the ailing Kim Jong-il.
China’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, Cheng Guoping, was quoted in another document saying that North Korea’s nuclear work was a “threat to the whole world’s security”.
The US ambassador quoted Mr Cheng saying China hoped for “peaceful reunification in the long-term, but he expects the two countries to remain separate in the short-term”.
China remained neutral over North Korea’s bombardment of South Korea last week, simply proposing emergency talks. Japan, the US and Seoul are unenthusiastic, arguing North Korea should not be rewarded for violence and only deserves a negotiating place if it shows evidence of disarming.
A cable from the US consulate in the Chinese city of Shenyang, near the North Korean border, hints at another hidden layer of support for North Korea, from the “princelings” – children of high-ranking Chinese Communist party officials – who are developing business ties across the border.
On hearing of Chinese aid projects, the princelings will travel to North Korea to convince officials to use certain Chinese companies. The young middlemen will pocket a “tidy sum”, the consulate wrote.
Additional reporting by Mure Dickie in Tokyo
