Past, Present, and Future: A Chinese Perspective

Fu Ying, a former diplomat, offered her perspective on the thorny Korean nuclear issue

The Korean Nuclear Issue

Translated and edited by Xu Fangqing and Yu Xiaodong

The Korean nuclear issue is the most complicated and uncertain factor for Northeast Asian security. It has now become the focus of attention in the Asia Pacific and even the world at large.

Fu Ying, Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress and Chairperson of the Academic Committee of the National Institute of Global Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, offered her perspectives on the thorny issue in an article published on Brookings.edu on April 12, 2017, and a Chinese version of the full article was also published on ChinaReport’s sister publication China Newsweek (Vol 803).

Fu Ying previously served as China’s vice minister of foreign affairs. She has also served as ambassador to the Philippines, Australia and the United Kingdom. From 2000 to 2003, she was director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s Department of Asian Affairs, and in that role she was involved in the multilateral talks that took place over the Korean nuclear issue.

In the article, Fu Ying gave a detailed account of the history of the Korean nuclear issue. As the Chinese saying goes, “He who tied the bell should be the one who unties it.” To open the rusty lock of the Korean nuclear issue, we should look for the right key, she said. Below follow further excerpts from the article.

Origin of the Korean Nuclear Crisis

The origin of the Korean nuclear issue can be traced back to the settlement of the Korean War – a war which in a legal sense has not yet ended, said Fu Ying. After the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953, the Korean Peninsula remained divided along the 38th parallel north between the ROK (Republic of Korea, commonly referred to as South Korea) in the south and the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, commonly referred as North Korea) in the north.

With the South backed by the Western powers headed by the US and the North by the socialist camp led by the former USSR, the Korean Peninsula became a front of the Cold War, though the Peninsula was relatively calm for some time as the two superpowers were in relative equilibrium.

In the early years of the Cold War, North Korea established the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre for the peaceful use of nuclear energy in 1959 with the help of the USSR, though the Soviet experts returned home after North Korea built its first 2-megawatt small light water reactor in 1965. Then in the early 1980s, North Korea started to construct a 5-megawatt natural uranium graphite gas-cooled reactor, which would be able to produce 6 kilograms (13 pounds) of weapons-grade plutonium each year.

At the beginning of the 1980s, North Korea started to construct a reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium. At the same time, the US started to pay attention to the growth of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. In 1985, the US pressured the USSR to force North Korea to accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).