China's peaceful rise and North Korea's military provocations: North Korea's change from a strategic asset to a political liability for Beijing

It appears that the latest crisis on the Korean Peninsula, triggered on November 23, 2010, by North Korea, has led the Chinese leadership to revisit its relationship with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) with a renewed sense of urgency. In this paper, largue that in light of China's wider regional ambitions in particular, such a reexamination is becoming more and more necessary. It has been correctly asserted that the most important source of conflict between China and the United States lies in Beijing's ambition to reclaim China's historical place as a leading power in the world and the Washington's refusal to surrender the United States' position as the sole superpower. Here, I argue that the likelihood of this conflict erupting in the long term is increased by North Korea's recent aggressive and violent foreign policy because this threatens to further anchor the United States in East Asia, primarily in the context of security affairs.