I think the central dynamic is two powers totally distrustful of each other. To drum up support for the regime and second as a bargaining ploy. There's a lot of symbolic sensitivity. Cho arrived for the first talks between the countries' defense ministers amid South Korea's concern over North Korea's plans to test a new long-range missile. China's size and status have come to its advantage at recent negotiations between China, the United States and the two Koreas designed to bring a lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula.
Korean diplomacy presents a challenge to China's foreign ministry.
They don't want to have North Korea go down the tubes. They prefer to have a buffer of sorts on the Korean Peninsula, a regime hostile to the U.S., and they don't want to be seen as turning their back on North Korean credibility. Swaine also believes China's recent efforts to modernize the military are geared more toward showing its people that the country can defend itself and that it can remain free from overseas coercion. They want to attend to crises within 500 miles of their borders, and that really requires theater denial capabilities. On that basis China thinks it should have a place in the global arena.