N. Korea takes sideswipe at China's policy toward Pyongyang
2014/07/21 16:29
SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Monday took an apparent sideswipe at China for its zero-tolerance policy against Pyongyang's possession of nuclear weapons and its criticism of recent military provocations.
Denouncing the U.S.-led international pressure on Pyongyang, the North's powerful National Defense Commission (NDC) said "some backbone-lacking countries are joining the U.S. hostile policy.
"Some backbone-lacking countries are blindly following the stinky bottom of the U.S., also struggling to embrace (South Korean President) Park Geun-hye who came to a pathetic state of being," the NDC statement said, apparently referring to China. The statement was carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency.
Chinese President Xi Jinping held a summit meeting with Park earlier this month in Seoul, agreeing on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. He was the first-ever Chinese leader to vist Seoul before traveling to its long-time traditional ally North Korea.
Sidestepping North Korea's indignation, China also joined the United Nations' security council in adopting a press statement last week denouncing the North's recent test launches of ballistic missiles in June.
Analysts said the level of criticism in the Monday statement is unusually explicit toward China, the North's biggest, most generous ally and sponsor, predicting that the strained North Korea-China relations, especially following Pyongyang's shock execution of Jang Song-thaek, the North Korean leader's once-powerful uncle well connected with Chinese officials, may continue for an extended period of time.
The icy mood has been detected in a series of recent episodes between the communist neighbors.
Breaking with tradition, the North did not publish a celebratory message this year on the July 11 anniversary of the signing of the Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty in 1961.
China, in its part, suspended its crude oil exports to North Korea in the first five months of this year, according to data.
"It does not appear likely the North Korea-China relations would improve for a while as the North is expected to take tension-escalating action ahead of the joint South Korea-U.S. Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercise next month as well as U.S. midterm elections in November," said Chang Yong-suk, a researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University.
Amid the fractured relationship with China, Pyongyang has recently reached out to Russia and Japan possibly in a move to balance out its reliance on China.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has repeatedly highlighted diplomatic and economic ties with Russia in recent months while striking an unusual agreement with Japan to investigate the fate of Japanese nationals kidnapped by its agents decades ago.
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