Workers at Kim Jong Tae Electric Locomotive Combined Plant attend an assembly to honour their deceased leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang Dec. 26, 2011 in this picture released by KCNA.Reuters/Reuters
Fearing internal instability in North Korea that could spiral into a regional war, Japan is urging China to keep a close watch on its client and neighbour as Pyongyang passes the torch to an untested leader in charge of a nuclear arsenal.
The fate of the insular, erratic North Korean regime dominated the two-day Sino-Japanese summit on Monday. The meeting underscored a willingness by the major regional players to set aside – at least temporarily – their differences to engage on the overriding importance of averting collapse or chaos in North Korea. China, which props up the North Korean regime and remains Pyongyang's only ally, told the visiting Japanese Prime Minister that it wants to "maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."
Beijing and Tokyo, capitals of the world's second- and third-largest economies, also struck a wide-ranging currency deal intended to help bring the two rival powers closer. They agreed to promote direct trading of the yen and yuan and will encourage the development of a market for companies involved in the exchanges.
China remains vital to any orderly North Korean transition. Any hopes of restarting the so-called six-party talks – which include Russia, South Korea, Japan and the United States – rest with China, although few expect an early resumption. The talks, aimed at persuading or pressuring Pyongyang to give up its small but destabilizing arsenal of nuclear warheads, have dragged on fruitlessly for years.
Although long anticipated, the sudden death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il set off a carefully staged and closely monitored succession. While many North Korea experts worry that a split within the military could lead to a conflagration that would pull in South Korea and the United States, the worst fears have yet to materialize. No shots have been fired across the heavily-fortified DMZ – the no-man's land dividing North and South Korea since the end of the war nearly six decades ago.
There has been no outward evidence of internal turmoil or a struggle between military factions.
In the 10 days since the death of the veteran North Korean autocrat, an anxious world watched as Pyongyang staged a rapid and – so far – orderly transition, conferring ranks and titles and public displays of fealty on the dictator's third son, Kim Jong-un, who was educated secretly in Switzerland and is believed to be 29 years old. Although he has no previous military or governing experience, he was vaulted over the weekend into several key positions, including head of North Korea's all-powerful military.
Meanwhile, key regional players made significant symbolic efforts to bolster the transition. A high-ranking, albeit unofficial, South Korean delegation will attend the funeral on Wednesday.
That delegation, led by the widow of a former South Korean president and including the widow of a former chairman of the industrial giant Hyundai, arrived in Pyongyang on Monday and met the new leader as they paid respects to his father.
Lee Hee-ho, 90, led the delegation from Seoul. In a tribute to the dead North Korean leader, and while the young "Great Successor" looked on, she wrote that she hoped "the spirit of the South-North Joint Declaration" – signed by former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il in June of 2000 – "would be carried forward to achieve national reunification as soon as possible."
At this fragile transitional stage, even those hoping for the eventual collapse of one of the world's most brutal and despotic regimes seem willing to back China's efforts to support orderly transition.
The world wants "to avoid conflict and chaos on the Korean peninsula," China's President Hu Jintao told Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was making his first visit to Beijing since taking office in September.