Abstract: How does the North Korean government view China? This study examines North Korea’s foreign policy on China by analyzing the strategic options of North Korean leaders and applying sentiment analysis to Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reports about China. It is found that North Korea’s generally positive attitude toward China contains nuanced types of sentiments and that North Korean leaders have managed the expression of these sentiments in the media to achieve political goals at domestic and international levels. Our findings also suggest that, first, China may not be the key to the solution of the Korean nuclear issue. Second, Kim Jong Un was not a weak leader from the beginning of his rule. Rather he had acquired a substantial amount of authority before Kim Jong Il passed away. Based on our findings, an analysis of the future development of the North Korea–China relationship is also provided. Full text available here.
