ABSTRACT
China’s policy toward North Korea is a quintessential case of balance of relationship, as the relationship has adapted according to the perceived change in threat to the long-standing China-North Korea reciprocal friendship. The threat primarily rose from the interventionary policies of the United States and Japan, both hoping to eliminate North Korea’s current regime from being an actor in the existing relationship. For China, intervention is out of the question, as no significant change has occurred in the bilateral relationship between China and North Korea. Only when a stable Sino-US relationship is at stake is China willing to reconcile between the interventionary US and the recalcitrant North Korea. Nevertheless, reconciliation is intended to keep North Korea from being directly intervened by facilitating North Korea’s self-restraint via China’s persuasion.
