ABSTRACT
There are few closer allies than the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea). China and Korea share common boundaries of about 1,500 km, making them mutually dependent in many arenas, in particular, economic, strategic and cultural ones. Confucian legacies can be seen in both nations, which stress the values of filial piety, knowledge, and obedience. Even after the communist period of rule, these values have not experienced sea changes, although many would be reminded of the Chinese political turmoil during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and its sour relations with North Korea, Kim Il Sung was accused by Chinese Red Guards of being a “fat revisionist.” China and Korea have also suffered from numerous interventions and invasions since the late nineteenth century, and these memories have helped write both nations’ contemporary history. It is well perceived, or understood, that, after the victory of the communist revolution, both nations have shown vehement drives intertwined with sentimental xenophobia in their foreign policies. The PRC and the DPRK’s similar stance in suspecting the intention of neighboring powers, such as Japan, the Soviet Union (later Russia) can be traced back to their traumatic memories, and these memories will no doubt continue so as to make cooperation and integration in Northeast Asia much very difficult. Based on their similar experiences in dealing with the major powers, the PRC and the DPRK have thus become natural allies to pursue their common goal of national security. The acceptance of communism as the PRC and the DPRK’s leading ideology further strengthened their cohesian in the twentieth century. Leaders of both countries thought that they belonged to a single family of the socialist world, plus the then-existing Soviet Union and other satellite states. Its common missions have been the defeat of imperialism and the capitalist world, aside from the struggle to pursue their respective national reunifications.
