A sign reading "China is a betrayer and is our enemy" was reportedly put up at North Korea’s Gang Gun Military Academy, one of the country’s most elite military education institutions, according to the South Korean Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Monday.
The news has not been independently verified as the source used by the newspaper has not been named. Chosun Ilbo, a conservative daily noted for its anti-North stance, has published spectacular but unverifiable stories in the past.
On the other hand, it would not be the first time such a sign has been hung at the Gang Gun Military Academy. Messages criticizing the North's long-time ally have been displayed before during periods of tension.
When South Korea and China officially established diplomatic relations in 1992, ‘Eternal President’ Kim Il-sung visited the Academy and told cadets China was an enemy of North Korea and that they might have to go to war. A similar sign was hung at the academy at that time.
Another sign was displayed just last year on Kim Jong-un’s orders when China backed international sanctions from the UN. Kim stated that North Korea should reconsider its attitude toward China.
Also, there is a motive for the most recent sign: South Korean President Park Geun-hye met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands on Sunday.
President of the World Institute for North Korea Studies Ahn Chan-il said that “[If the Chosun’s report is true] a meeting of two presidents from South Korea and China has likely affected North Korea’s decision to hang the sign again”, adding that North Korea for some time has been afraid of having its political and economic system influenced by China.
“China has successfully adopted a market economy while maintaining its communist idea. But Pyongyang knows it will be impossible for North Korea to do same thing,” Ahn said. “That’s why North Korea is afraid of China’s influence, and hanging the sign is one of its efforts to resist any kind of influence from China.”
[Image via Wikipedia]
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