‘Sealed in blood’: Where does the China-North Korea alliance stand today?
- Chinese leaders often describe Beijing’s relationship with North Korea as close “as lips and teeth”, but as warm as bilateral ties appear, this is a relationship underscored above all by strategic necessity.
- On July 11, 1961, then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and North Korean leader Kim Il Sung signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in Beijing.
- Sixty-five years later, the treaty remains in force, containing a mutual defence clause committing either side to assist the other if one comes under armed attack.
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- Chinese leaders often describe Beijing’s relationship with North Korea as close “as lips and teeth”, but as warm as bilateral ties appear, this is a relationship underscored above all by strategic necessity.
- On July 11, 1961, then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and North Korean leader Kim Il Sung signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in Beijing.
- Sixty-five years later, the treaty remains in force, containing a mutual defence clause committing either side to assist the other if one comes under armed attack.
Sources: Al Jazeera