Introduction: China and North Korea: between development and security

Abstract

In recent years, the international community, and particularly the United Nations (UN), has drawn greater attention to the tension between support and protection for the fragile population of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK (also known as North Korea) and attempts to curtail its development of nuclear weapons, arguing that the security threats posed by the North Korean state and the insecurities confronting its citizens are inextricably linked. Up until 2014, the international community adopted separate processes and policies to address the external and internal security threats in North Korea, imposing UN sanctions to manage the external threat, and providing humanitarian aid to support a struggling population to address the internal threats. In 2014, with the publication of a UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry report into the human rights of the population in North Korea, attention was refocused on the relationship between the internal and external security environments. This re-invigorated focus raises the question of how can or should the international community, and particularly North Korea’s neighbouring states, manage or mitigate the internal security threats emanating from North Korea. Although it would be naïve to suggest this is a new question, in responding to it this book adopts a new approach. It identifies that China and the Republic of Korea (also known as South Korea) have a long history of approaching the external and internal threats as a part of the same problem, seeking to address the external threat from the regime through internal development. As such, they have both sought to support the development of the population, including their healthcare needs, food supplies and living conditions, and the national economy in North Korea, without unintentionally supporting nuclear developments. For example,