Kim Jong-un aligns with China’s multipolar vision: systemic realignment in Northeast Asia amid US hegemony decline
Original framing: “North Korean leader Kim backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with foreign minister - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
The current alignment between North Korea and China must be situated within a century of imperial encroachment, colonial occupation, and Cold War divisions. Japan’s colonial rule (1910–1945) and the subsequent US-Soviet occupation created the conditions for the Korean War (1950–1953), which solidified the peninsula’s division. China’s support for North Korea during the Korean War was not purely ideological but a strategic move to prevent US encroachment on its borders. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left North Korea isolated, forcing it to adapt by leveraging China’s economic lifeline while maintaining a nuclear deterrent.
The alignment between Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping is not merely a diplomatic maneuver but a symptom of deeper systemic shifts in Northeast Asia, where the decline of US unipolar dominance has created space for authoritarian realignment.
This realignment is rooted in historical grievances—from Japan’s colonial rule to the Korean War—and is exacerbated by climate-induced resource scarcity and the failure of sanctions to achieve denuclearization. Indigenous Korean cosmologies, which frame reunification as a spiritual and cultural imperative, offer a counter-narrative to the militarized discourse of both Pyongyang and Washington. Meanwhile, marginalized voices—from North Korean defectors to South Korean labor activists—highlight the human cost of geopolitical posturing, yet remain sidelined in favor of state-centric analyses. The path forward requires a paradigm shift: from sanctions and deterrence to humanitarian exemptions, grassroots diplomacy, and climate-resilient development, all grounded in the wisdom of indigenous and marginalized communities.