Professor Cai Jian (left) and professor EmanuelPastreich (right)

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AsiaToday reporter Kim Yoo-jin - "China's North Korea policy will unlikely to change dramatically considering the fact that no fundamental change regarding China-US tension on the Korean peninsula has occurred," said Cai Jian, professor of Korean Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University.

In the Jan. 17th interview with Prof. Emanuel Pastreich, Associate Professor at Kyung Hee University and Senior Advisor at AsiaToday, Cai Jian said, "China will strengthen cooperation with the international community and exercise more pressure on North Korea to bring it back to the path of denuclearization."

"The conflict between North and South Korea will intensify, which will make China more difficult to conduct its balance relation strategy in the Korean peninsula. China needs to adjust its relations with North Korea and South Korea more specifically," he said.

"Many people think that China-S. Korea relations improved sharply while China-N. Korea fell significantly after Xi Jinping took office. However, in my opinion, there is no change in China's balance policy in the Korean peninsula. There was just a little adjustment," Cai said.

"If China also joins the international community to exercise much pressure on North Korea, it will likely to cause instability inside North Korea and this wouldn't serve the interests of China. There is still a common strategic demand between North Korea and China, so stability and peace of the Korean peninsula will be China's first priority," he said.

Regarding North Korea's denuclearization, he said, "At the moment, there is no good reason for North Korea to give up its nuclear capability. North Korea doesn't trust China, because China cannot give North Korae security guarantee."

When asked about Korea's reunification issue, he answered, "China has never opposed Korean unification in its history. China's stance is that Korean unification should be done independently and peacefully. Recently, China added one more thing, which is that the unification should be done progressively."

He explained that Korean unification should be done under completely independent judgments between North and South Korea without any external interference, and that it means the withdrawal of U.S. troops in the Korean peninsula. He added that unification should be done without drastic changes.

He highly appreciated President Park Geun-hye's diplomatic skills, stating, "President Park's frequent international activities and close contact with developed countries are a great help to raise Korea's international standing."

Prof. Cai Jian graduated from the Department of History in Suzhou University and Nanjing University, and completed a doctorate at the School of International Politics at Fudan University. He is currently an associate professor at Fudan University's Center for Korean Studies. As an expert in the Korean peninsula, he is giving advices on international politics through influential foreign press.