A Rift of Alliance between North Korea and China and North Korea’s Alternative Diplomacy toward the United States: From Rapprochement to Confrontational Approaches

The purpose of this article is to analyze the cracks in North Korea and China’s relationship in the process of regressing from the “blood alliance” between North Korea and China to the “strategic relationship” and the factors that attempt to “stabilize the system” through North Korea-U.S. relations. Existing studies tend to analyze relations between North Korea and China from a traditional perspective, such as “blood alliance” and “pureness.” However, North Korea’s three hereditary successions and aggressive diplomacy by China’s “Xijinping leadership” are impossible to use strategic “use” centered on each country’s interests. China has maintained relations with the view that stability and peace in the region are in its interest and “maintain the status quo,” or manage and attract North Korea’s instability factors. It also maximizes its interests by using the North Korean issue and two Korean Peninsula strategies as a minefield for negotiations with the United States.