서강대학교

초록/요약

Since the Korean-War, China and North Korea have maintained a blood alliance through the ‘Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between two states’ in 1961. For the past decades, China succeeded both economic and military developments which made them a super-power state in the world. Ever since then, such relationship features between these two states have evolved to focus more on strategic value. China is trying to promote their value of national brand and image to the world under the newly emerged foreign policy motto of ‘responsible great power,’ and its perspective on its relationship with North Korea was turning towards strategically achieving its national interest. In such an atmosphere, North-Korea continues its military provocations in order to maintain their regime under the protection of China’s super-power status. However, North Korea is not in an unconditional alliance with China anymore and North Korea’s confrontational ways has rapidly brought China to view North Korea from a geostrategic asset into a political liability. China must consider the unavoidable inconvenient situations between strategically covering North Korea’s military provocations as an alliance state and the backlash from the international community on China’s role for tackling it. Nonetheless, China keeps its stance to protect North Korea’s military provocations up until now; although China’s doggedness in strategically covering North Korea’s military provocations may ebb its reputation as a super-power. Such moderate attitude of China towards North Korea’s military provocations have been affected by China’s interest towards North Korea as a strategic asset for China’s regime stability, by restraining U.S. military forces in North East Asia as a competitive rival in its region and in the world as much as it can, and that of the international community’s blame towards China’s role for tackling North Korea’s military provocations. China will decide their stance towards North Korea’s military provocations by comparing above three variables that will be the most decisive factors for affecting China’s national interest. This thesis finds the most crucial variables in China’s attitude by using case studies. And then this thesis charily expects that China would maintain a favorable response on North Korea’s military provocation for the time being, unless North Korea is confronted with regime collapse.