North Korea-China Relations: An Asymmetric Alliance

This paper examines North Korean alignment with China during the Cold War and the post-Cold War period, taking into account the different factors enumerated by Stephen Walt's balance-of-threat theory in his seminal work The Origins of Alliances that affect the level of threat: aggregate power, geographic proximity, offensive power, and aggressive intentions. The nature of the alliance between North Korea and China is determined by their attitudes toward South Korea and the United States. From a theoretical angle, this paper adopts a realist viewpoint, focuses on security concerns of state actors, and does not take into account the value of alternative theoretical viewpoints.