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 original framing omits indigenous Korean perspectives on reunification, historical grievances stemming from colonialism and the Korean War, and the role of South Korean civil society in resisting both US military presence and North Korean authoritarianism. It also ignores how economic sanctions have devastated civilian populations in North Korea, framing the regime’s survival as purely ideological rather than adaptive. Structural causes like the collapse of the Soviet Union and China’s post-Mao economic reforms are overlooked, as are the voices of North Korean defectors and labor activists.
Low structural omission detected in mainstream coverage.
The narrative is produced by Western-centric outlets like AP News, which frame North Korea and China as 'rogue' actors destabilizing the liberal international order. This framing serves US strategic interests by justifying military alliances (e.g., NATO expansion, AUKUS) and sanctions regimes while obscuring the historical role of US hegemony in shaping regional tensions. The coverage prioritizes state-centric analysis, ignoring how grassroots movements and marginalized communities in Northeast Asia resist both US dominance and authoritarian governance.
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.