North Korea’s apparent assassination of Kim Jong-un’s exiled half-brother Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur’s airport was many things: A hideously cruel act; a brazen act of international terrorism; and another sign of the paranoia of the young North Korean dictator.
It was also an insult to North Korea’s only true ally and protector: China.
Kim Jong-nam had been living under Chinese protection in its gambling enclave of Macau. Beijing presumably considered him an asset—Kim’s insights into the North Korean regime were obviously very useful and there are some suggestions that that the Chinese leadership viewed him as a possible leader of North Korea should Kim Jong-un fall. His assassination, therefore, is an affront to Beijing—as well as an embarrassment: “This will look bad for Chinese security people who were charged with keeping an eye out,” notes Berkeley professor Thomas Gold, an expert on Sino-Korean relations.
Nor is this the first time that Kim Jong-un has poked the eyes of the country that continues to provide his regime with desperately needed fuel, food, and arms. Early in his leadership, Kim murdered his uncle Jang Song-thaek, a once powerful official who served as a bridge between Beijing and Pyongyang. (For someone who claims to uphold true Korean values, Kim certainly lacks Confucian ethics, which prize the family—he has a penchant for murdering his relatives.) Now, the Chinese will only be “further upset,” by Kim Jong-nam’s death, reasons Su Mi Terry, a former intelligence official with deep expertise in northeast Asia. They were already annoyed by Pyongyang’s test of a ballistic missile just a couple of days before the Kim Jong-nam assassination.
Still, the assassination looks (unfortunately) like it won’t be the straw that breaks the camel’s back of China’s support for North Korea. “I am not sure what, if anything, China is going to do about it,” says Terry. “While China’s relationship with North Korea has deteriorated since assassination of Jang Song-thaek, we haven’t seen any substantive policy reversal coming out of China. They still don’t fully enforce UNSC sanctions against North Korea.” But Kim Jong-un is definitely playing a dangerous game, repeatedly antagonizing a highly nationalistic and touchy Chinese leader.
And, indeed, what good reason could Kim Jong-un possibly have to repeatedly angering his only protector and patron, one whose support he desperately needs? The dictator’s actions hardly seem rational. And that is truly scary.
