The Korean Peninsula, located on the Korean Peninsula, has maintained very close ties with the mainland since ancient times. According to the "Historical Records", the Jizi who started the history of Korea was the surviving nobles of the Shang Dynasty from Anyang, Henan.
After the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, the first paragraph of which explicitly stated that the Qing Dynasty agreed to recognize Korea as a "completely independent and self-governing state."
In the process of North Korea getting rid of Western oppression, the newly born New China has given North Korea two-sided assistance, and many domestic netizens feel that North Korea should be grateful to us, but the actual situation is that North Korea has been trying to downplay China's help, and has also alienated China by actively wooing Russia. So, what is the helplessness and sadness of North Korea?
1. China's assistance to the DPRK
In 2013, Lieutenant General Wang Hongguang, who served as deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region, published an article on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which systematically reviewed the historical origins of China and North Korea, in which he clearly stated that North Korea has been dragging down China's development since ancient times. Taking the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea as an example, this is a "drag war" provoked by the DPRK side and the Chinese side has to rush to respond to the war.
After the end of World War II, the Korean Peninsula was divided into two parts, North Korea and South Korea, according to the "demarcation line" between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Kim Il-sung held the supreme power in North Korea, which was in the Soviet camp, and before the founding of New China, this strongman had repeatedly contacted China and the Soviet Union to express his desire to resolve the issue of the reunification of the peninsula by force.
Originally, neither the Soviet Union nor the mainland agreed to Kim Il Sung's "military reunification plan," but the situation changed radically in 1950.
In the "Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance" signed that year, the Soviet Union promised to return to the Chinese side ports controlled by the Soviet army, such as Lushun and Dalian.
In 1950, the mainland had already formed a 500,000-strong sea-crossing army led by General Su Yu, and if things went well, we had every hope of realizing cross-strait reunification in 1951.
According to the great man's reply to Kim Il Sung in 1949, after the mainland completes the great cause of reunification, it can make every effort to help the DPRK resolve the issue of separatism on the peninsula.
However, what is disappointing is that the DPRK, which is worried about China's dishonesty, has reached a secret military alliance with the Soviet side behind the back of the mainland. With the support of the Soviet Union, the army led by Kim Il Sung conquered Seoul, the capital of South Korea, in only three days.
Unfortunately, the DPRK seriously misjudged the determination of the United States to defend its interests on the peninsula, and after the US troops landed at Incheon, Kim Il-sung was defeated and had no choice but to urgently seek help from China and the Soviet Union.
Judging from the later declassified materials, the reason why the Soviet Union fully supported Kim Il Sung's plan for "military reunification" was, in addition to the consideration of obtaining port resources on the Korean Peninsula, the most important purpose was to drag China into the whirlpool of the Cold War against the West.
Although the reckless action of the DPRK side seriously undermined the mainland's established arrangement, the mainland still agreed to the DPRK's request for help out of the consideration of "fighting with a fist."
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During the two-year-and-nine-month War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the mainland paid a huge price of more than 180,000 casualties and more than 380,000 wounded, and also owed the Soviet Union a huge foreign debt of nearly 3 billion yuan.
The mainland not only did not demand any economic responsibility from the DPRK for these efforts, but also gave the DPRK a large amount of aid after the armistice.
In 1953, North Korean society was in a state of ruin, with a large amount of infrastructure destroyed and a large number of war orphans in the country. While providing large sums of free economic aid to the DPRK, the mainland has also sent engineers to the DPRK to participate in post-war reconstruction, and many North Korean orphans have been sent to Chinese families to raise them.
It was not until 1964, when North Korea joined the Soviet-led "Council for Mutual Economic Assistance," that the mainland stopped its aid programs to North Korea.
2. North Korea, which downplays its history
Like the behavior of the "white-eyed wolf" Vietnam, the North Korean top leadership does not seem to want the North Korean people to know about the "history of China's aid to Korea" that took place in the fifties and sixties.
Due to North Korea's highly secretive social operation model, Chinese netizens cannot see the details of North Korean history textbooks at all, but judging from the "July 27 Victory Festival" held by the North Korean side in 2014, the North Korean side does not look at the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea from an objective and fair perspective.
Unlike previous celebrations, the DPRK did not invite Chinese representatives this time, and they also portrayed the Korean People's Army as the main force in the celebration to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
Even the historical documents of the United States and South Korea describe the Chinese People's Volunteers as the main force on the battlefield in the records of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea; However, at the 2014 celebrations held in North Korea, these "cutest people" turned out to be the companion of "General Kim".
As the saying goes, "my territory listens to mine", the DPRK's celebrations on its own territory can of course carry out some "historical interpretation", and as long as their leaders are satisfied with this, the Chinese side should not interfere too much.
However, the "China-North Korea debate" that broke out in 2017 fully exposed North Korea's strategic intention to downplay history and alienate China.
Between 2016 and 2017, North Korea conducted three nuclear tests despite the opposition of China, South Korea and other stakeholders on the peninsula. In a nuclear test conducted on September 3, 2017, North Korea detonated a hydrogen bomb with a yield of more than 100,000 tons.
In order to prevent North Korea's nuclear test from threatening the mainland's ecological environment, the relevant departments activated a one-week emergency response state.
After the "9.3 North Korean nuclear test", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the mainland immediately condemned the adventurous actions of the DPRK.
However, after the mainland clearly expressed its support for the Security Council's resolution on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, North Korea not only did not reflect on its own mistakes, but instead blamed China.
In a KCNA commentator's article titled "Stop Doing Reckless Words and Deeds That Shake the Foundation of DPRK-China Relations," North Korea said in a high-profile manner that China should be grateful to North Korea for its "anti-US contributions," and they also denied the view that nuclear tests threaten China's ecological environment.
In the article, which criticized China's position by name, North Korea also threatened the Chinese side with deliberate words and actions that shake the foundations of China-North Korea relations.
Among the articles that countered the inappropriate remarks of the Korean Central News Agency, the most noteworthy was the "initiative theory" put forward by Shan Renping of the Global Times.
According to Shan Renping's viewpoint, no matter what the DPRK media says, it cannot change the internal logic and situation of Sino-DPRK relations, and the initiative in Sino-DPRK relations is always in the hands of China.
Sure enough, as expected by mainland state media commentators, North Korea finally chose to apologize. According to public information, between March and June 2018, the DPRK leader visited China three times, and China-DPRK relations have completely shaken off the shadow of the "China-DPRK polemic".
3. North Korea's helplessness and sadness
It seems that it is not difficult to face up to history, but there are very few countries that can really do it, and the DPRK lacks the courage to objectively look at the history of China's aid to the DPRK.
The reason why North Korea has always behaved like a "white-eyed wolf" in Vietnam is mainly due to three main reasons.
First, the economic conditions are extremely backward. With the help of the Soviet-led "Economic and Mutual Economic Association," the DPRK's economy experienced a period of rapid development in the sixties and seventies. In 1970, North Korea's per capita GDP was as high as $400, 3.54 times that of the mainland.
As the saying goes, "a good man doesn't mention the courage of the year", after the "separation" of the Soviet Union, North Korea's economy declined rapidly, and North Korea's per capita GDP in 2023 will only be 685 US dollars, about one-twentieth of that of the mainland.
The reason why Shan Renping proposed that "the initiative in Sino-DPRK relations is in the hands of China" is because almost all of North Korea's foreign exchange earnings now come from the mainland.
The DPRK, which is extremely economically backward, cannot solve the problem of satisfying the material needs of the people at all, and they can only provide the people with "spiritual food"; the propaganda of the DPRK media that exaggerates the deeds of "General Kim" is indeed ridiculous in our opinion, but for the DPRK, this is a key means to enhance national cohesion.
Second, the external environment is extremely dangerous. The mainland's opposition to North Korea's nuclear test is not aimed at North Korea's demands alone, but to achieve the peaceful goal of denuclearization of the peninsula.
However, the US-led US-led military alliance between the United States, Japan, and the ROK is constantly creating tension on the peninsula. According to the news, the US aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt has arrived in South Korea to participate in the "Freedom Blade" military exercise organized by the United States, Japan, and South Korea.
Although China and North Korea have an unbreakable common interest in opposing Western hegemony, the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear test is something that the mainland must never accept.
If North Korea had a choice, they would most likely not risk a nuclear test; However, the United States, which is bent on destabilizing the Korean Peninsula, has not given the DPRK a chance for peaceful development at all.
Third, the delicate relationship between China, North Korea and South Korea. Due to the delicate relations between the DPRK and the ROK, the mainland did not establish diplomatic relations with the ROK at the ambassadorial level until 1992, and in the early days of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the ROK, the mainland kept the DPRK secret.
In 2023, the total trade volume between China and South Korea will reach 267.684 billion US dollars, about 117 times that of China and North Korea, and it is obvious that China-South Korea relations have a higher influence on China's economy.
North Korea, which has not yet opened up to the outside world, knows very well that it cannot replace South Korea's position in China's economy. Therefore, whenever some progress is made in Sino-ROK economic and trade cooperation, the DPRK will immediately provoke some incidents in order to safeguard its strategic position on the Chinese peninsula.
In the case of the signing of a military alliance treaty between North Korea and Russia, this hot spot incident will seriously affect the cooperation projects reached between China and South Korea during the summit between the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea.
epilogue
National diplomacy is not a brotherhood between heroes in Liangshan, but a large-scale game in pursuit of mutual benefit and win-win results. The main reason why the friendship between China and the DPRK has continued to this day is because of the complicated international situation on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea's downplaying of history and alienating China will not affect China-DPRK friendship, because only the mainland can determine the direction of China-DPRK friendship.
So, how do you think we should balance the relationship between stakeholders on the Korean Peninsula? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss, like our article, please pay attention!