According to a new report, Beijing would send in the People’s Liberation Army if it felt threatened by a rapid breakdown in Kim Jong-il’s rule over the country. ...
According to PLA academics quoted by the report, which was written by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the US Institute of Peace, the army has three “missions” in a failing North Korea.
One would be humanitarian — to deal with refugees or the consequences of natural disaster.
The second is peacekeeping and maintaining order, and the third requires it to deal with contamination from a military strike on North Korea’s nuclear facilities, and to secure nuclear weapons and materials to prevent them getting into the “wrong hands”.
The report said that there were disagreements among its sources as to whether China still wished to preserve its “special relationship” with North Korea, the only country with which it has a formal, mutual defence alliance.
But they agreed that Beijing would neither intervene to replace Kim Jong-il, nor to prevent him being replaced by others.
I admit that China's unusual focus on training could also apply to North Korea--but only in part. Not only would troops on a peacekeeping mission to a collapsed state not need intensive combat training, air and naval forces wouldn't be needed for this scenario in ways that would stress them. And it doesn't explain mock-ups of Taiwanese airfields being used for training by China.
I assume China has had quiet discussions with us, South Korea, Japan, and Russia about this. Could the partition of North Korea be envisioned to satisfy competing interests?
