Doomsday scenario plan would divide North Korea. pg2
Continued,...
...China would be able to use the territory to stem refugee flows and establish a buffer against US forces - on an understanding that its occupation was temporary and that US forces would not seek to stay north of the existing DMZ.
Mistrust and suspicion
It sounds an unlikely scenario.
A further division of the peninsula would infuriate nationalists in South Korea, who feel their country's rising power as an economic force in the world.
China does not trust American intentions in Korea or anywhere else, complaining that Washington is already trying to contain it with a policy of encirclement from Mongolia to Vietnam.
Some South Koreans already suspect a Chinese plan to block reunification by annexing the north, or parts of it, and securing natural resources and ports on the Pacific for Beijing.
China has been unwilling to discuss any such scenarios so far, for fear of upsetting its Communist party allies in Pyongyang.
But diplomats say China has shown more signs of co-operation recently, even quietly helping some North Korean refugees seeking safe passage to the South.
Nationalist passions are running high in North-east Asia at the moment and hardliners in China may insist on a solid territorial buffer against feared American encroachment - at almost any cost.
However, pragmatists on all sides also have influence, arguing that contingency planning is essential for what could be a security nightmare at the heart of the world's most dynamic economic region.
North Korea may survive as a totalitarian anomaly for another two decades. But no-one in the neighbouring capitals can be confident that calamity won't strike next week.
...China would be able to use the territory to stem refugee flows and establish a buffer against US forces - on an understanding that its occupation was temporary and that US forces would not seek to stay north of the existing DMZ.
Mistrust and suspicion
It sounds an unlikely scenario.
A further division of the peninsula would infuriate nationalists in South Korea, who feel their country's rising power as an economic force in the world.
China does not trust American intentions in Korea or anywhere else, complaining that Washington is already trying to contain it with a policy of encirclement from Mongolia to Vietnam.
Some South Koreans already suspect a Chinese plan to block reunification by annexing the north, or parts of it, and securing natural resources and ports on the Pacific for Beijing.
China has been unwilling to discuss any such scenarios so far, for fear of upsetting its Communist party allies in Pyongyang.
But diplomats say China has shown more signs of co-operation recently, even quietly helping some North Korean refugees seeking safe passage to the South.
Nationalist passions are running high in North-east Asia at the moment and hardliners in China may insist on a solid territorial buffer against feared American encroachment - at almost any cost.
However, pragmatists on all sides also have influence, arguing that contingency planning is essential for what could be a security nightmare at the heart of the world's most dynamic economic region.
North Korea may survive as a totalitarian anomaly for another two decades. But no-one in the neighbouring capitals can be confident that calamity won't strike next week.
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