China's cooperation in N.K. regime change to realize its dream

North Korean diplomat Lee Soo Yong claimed in New York on April 21 that the regime only tried to respond to Washington’s nuclear threat with nuclear development. This is directly in disrespect of the UN resolutions agreed by 193 member nations and in violation of the international law. Still, the UN and the members have yet to come up with an effective way to strangle Kim Jong Un’s hands.

The regime’s nuclear plans aim at defending its one party dictatorship. This is the fundamental cause for all what’s happening within the territory, including the operation of prison camps locking up 120,000 people, torturing, illegal execution, forced abortion, mass famine, and the shut-down of the border area to deter defection.

The number of citizens starving has increased since the take-over by Kim Jong Un because the leader spent 4 billion dollars to his nuclear ambitions, an amount equivalent to 4-year food spending. If nuclear weapons fall into the hands of the leader, somehow more atrocious and aggressive than Stalin or Hitler, the country’s neighbors will suffer from nuclear threats every day. It may even lead to a destruction of the humanity as a whole. The only solution would be getting rid of Kim’s nuclear program altogether.

This means a need of fundamental regime change, especially removing the core figures that support the leader. The end of cold war was possible by taking down those at power in the Soviet Union. Nuclear development and autocracy consists two sides of a coin, so a demolition of the regime would naturally lead to abolition of the nuclear plan. Such a regime change does not necessarily accompany complete collapse of the country. It rather implies substituting the current dictatorship with a new open democratic regime.

China’s determination and cooperation will be the key to this end. China should help block the oil pipelines between it and the North as well as the smuggling path, open up the border area, and support North Korean defectors who fled to its territory. China should also make sure to agree to the UN Assembly’s resolution to accuse North Korean leaders of committing crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. The Korean Peninsula and the Northeast Asia would be able to welcome true peace in the region when new liberal elites take power in Pyongyang.

Such idea does not constitute interference of domestic affairs stipulated in the international law, but would be a humanitarian interference against crimes against humanity and exertion of resistance right against tyranny. China would be able to develop a better position in the international community if it cooperates in a regime change of Pyongyang, for supporting nonproliferation and human rights. It would be truly recognized as the new super power as one of G2 along with U.S. From this perspective, denuclearization of North Korea would be a crucial step towards realizing the ‘China Dream’ of President Xi Jinping. Above all, China would be able to get one of the two biggest diplomatic issues out of its way; the South China Sea dispute and the North Korean nuclear issue.

Yeo Yeong-moo, head of the Liberty Club