What will China do in case of a US-North Korea military conflict?

China reacted rather harshly to the reciprocal threats of the US president and the leader of North Korea.

The influential Chinese newspaper Global Times has hinted in its editorial that Pyongyang should not rely on China's help if North Korea is the first to launch a military conflict with the United States. South Korea and the US have also been warned: China will not allow the change of political regime in North Korea.

The publication of the Global Times emerged after Donald Trump said that North Korea "will receive fire and fury like the world has never seen."


Donald Trump's remarks provoked an almost immediate response from Pyongyang. Hours later, Kim Jong-un's government announced a plan to strike ballistic missiles at the island of Guam, where US military structures are located, and then the Andersen airbase in the same region hosting the B-52 strategic bombers .

The head of the Northeast Asian Studies Center of the Chinese University of Jilin, Ba Dianjun, recalled in an interview with Sputnik China that the Chinese have an obligation to help North Korea in the event of an aggression against this country.

But the North Korea-China friendship, cooperation and mutual aid agreement will not be triggered if North Korea starts a conflict.

Large and influential countries such as China and Russia are undoubtedly against the start of any open conflict around North Korea because it will affect the whole region. He points out that such a stance of China and Russia does not mean that the two countries are "godfathers" of North Korea, they simply do not approve of US military aggression.

Astronomer Konstantin Asmolov of the Middle East Institute believes that the issue in question by the Global Times expressed China's position: Beijing "will punish everyone who aggravates the tension in the Korean peninsula."

"The United States should not say that its attempt to deal with North Korea is similar to the Iraqi script," he said, because China will not allow the North Korean regime to change.

"What is now happening in the US media is similar to the events that preceded the war in Iraq. The war began with the motto that the US should bring democracy to the Iraqi people," said the expert, adding that at that time "The bloody tyrant" was Saddam Hussein, who allegedly had chemical weapons. The same script seems to have already been prepared for North Korea.