No more ‘let’s-blame-China,’ please

Honestly I am a little sick and tired of reading yet another piece of editorial from conservative South Korean media lambasting China after North Korea did something stupid.

You guys often publish pieces pointing out the nature of the so-called “China-North Korea alliance” is very loose, that both are quite suspicious of each other. You seem to be quite gleeful in reporting that North Korean leadership does not trust China, that China often gets snubbed by Pyongyang these days.

Yet when something like this (North Korea conducting a nuclear test) happens, you come out with the knee-jerk reaction of accusing China of not doing enough to prevent North Korea from running amok.

As China has consistently pointed out, the root cause of the North Korean nuclear crisis lies in a total sense of insecurity felt by the North Koreans. After all, they were branded by the Americans as one of the axis of evil. They want a formal peace treaty to replace the current armistice, they want a security guarantee that the U.S. will not attempt to attack it and perform regime changes in North Korea.

Your editorial states “Beijing does not show any sign of meaningful change except for its rhetorical opposition to the North’s nuclear armament and its expression of an intent to participate in discussions on sanctions.” What “meaningful change” are you talking about? Instead of always pointing fingers at China for not doing enough, why don’t you come up with a plan, or at least something that is both substantial and practical/doable?

Have you proposed anything? You guys have said it solemnly so many times that South Korea should take this matter into its own hands instead of relying on outsiders such as China and the U.S., yet you have come up with nothing that has the slightest potential to solve the North Korean nuclear crisis.

All you do is sanctioning, as if you sanctioned hard enough North Korea would just surrender. The latest talks of South Korea exiting the NPT and arming itself with nukes (promptly shot down by the Americans already) certainly will not do anything to defuse the crisis, rather it will escalate it even further.

So please, my dear friends at the South Korean conservative media and the South Korean government, please pause for a second and think about what would the potentially feasible ways to de-escalate and eventually resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis be, before you pull out the “let’s-blame-China card” next time. At least present some counter-strategies and alternatives to persuade the Chinese first before you blame China for the lack of results again.