By Yizheng Wang
The North Korean Nuclear problem has been around for a long time, and as time goes by, tension not only appears in the Korean Peninsula but also in other parts of the world, namely in the two biggest world powers: the United States and China. The U.S. and South Korea announced that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) would be deployed to counter the frequent movements of North Korea in July of 2016. The deployment of THAAD has a huge impact in East Asia since it would negatively influence the “bilateral military ties and mutual trust” between the United States and China. China expressed additional concern about the ballistic missiles in North Korea being used as an excuse for America to deploy the THAAD system, which China believes is more than just an anti-missile system against North Korea. The THAAD issue, therefore, has not just created a bilateral relationship, but a trilateral relationship instead.
China doesn’t like a nuclear nation lying on the Korean Peninsula, which is extremely close to its own territory. Because of this concern, China started imposing economic sanctions on North Korea, which had a huge impact on the North Korean economy. “North Korea bought $2 worth of goods from China in July for each $1 of sales to China, as China has essentially halted purchases of North Korean coal since mid-February. For the first seven months of the year, North Korea ran a trade deficit with China of nearly $1 billion, almost four times the amount of a year ago.” North Korea is no longer a reliable nor rational partner for China in East Asia, since Kim Jung-Un is an increasing liability with great potential to cause a war.
North Korea’s nuclear weapons are a huge threat to the United States, in part because they have army bases in South Korea and Japan. “Americans and most people in the Asia-Pacific countries surveyed are concerned about North Korea’s nuclear program. Half or more in each country say they are somewhat or very concerned about the nuclear program. In the Asia-Pacific region, anxiety is highest among Pyongyang’s closest neighbors – Japan, the Philippines and South Korea, where around 60% or more say they are very concerned.” At this point, it can be said that America has every reason to deploy the defense system in the Korean peninsula to counter the frequent military actions in North Korea. Not only is there concern in South Korea, but Japan, another of North Korea’s neighbors, also panicked about the nuclear program in North Korea. Data shows that up to 60 percent of people in Japan are worried about the nuclear program. In this case, Japan has every right to set up the defense system against North Korea in assistance of the United States. “Japanese and South Koreans expect the U.S. to come to their aid in the event of a conflict with North Korea – and Americans support such a move. The two close neighbors of North Korea (Japan and South Korea), are also U.S. treaty allies, meaning that if North Korea used military force against them, the U.S. would be obligated to defend them. ” The United States also has reason to believe that the U.S territory of Guam is in the range of the missiles as North Korea has launched a ballistic missile which flew over the Japanese island of Hokkaido into the Pacific Ocean. This would further strengthen the intention for Americans to step into the Korean peninsula or even invade North Korea to protect its own people and land. Because of these factors, the United States might act like along the lines of what Donald Trump said: “the communist state would feel the “fire and fury” of his armed forces unless it halted its nuclear weapons program.”
The problem of THAAD does not exist by itself. In the grand scheme of things, it is a problem closely related to the North Korean nuclear program. If there is ever a way to solve the problem peacefully and relieve the stress between China and United States, then it should be in the negotiations between North Korea and the rest of the world. Nobody wants a war, though we cannot all speak for North Korea. Even though the president of United States, Donald Trump, acts very irrational, the basic idea of his speeches is to avoid a war and protect the national interests of United States. China doesn’t want a war for various reasons as I stated before. Nevertheless, China started to cooperate with the United States, albeit reluctantly. China has called upon North Korea to give up the nuclear program for a long time but has barely implemented any sanctions to North Korea until the beginning of this year. The reason China gave in to previous reluctance is for the peace and innocent people, as they believed that economic sanctions will not deter Kim Jung-Un. Indeed, no one wants a war in the Korean Peninsula. China doesn’t want the tension to exist because this could mean American intrusion into East Asia. At this time, the United States has already finished deploying THAAD in South Korea. It is possible that if North Korea keeps acting aggressively, the United States would send troops or deploy more military weapons to the territory of its allies.
