Publication

This brief focuses on the increasingly strained relations between North Korea and China since the death of Kim Jong-Il in December 2011. As the text's author sees it, the only thing worse than a recalcitrant North Korean buffer state is a unified peninsula with overt security and economic ties to the United States. However, as the mercurial Kim Jong-un becomes increasingly defiant, Beijing may conclude that a unified Korean state is a preferred alternative to the status quo.