The Korean Peninsula, located in Northeast Asia, is China's gateway in the northeast, one of immense strategic importance.
In June 1950, the Korean War broke out. New China, despite the urgent need for domestic reconstruction, entered the war with great determination, for its own national security and also to support communist North Korea. China paid a huge price for the war but had North Korea's friendship in exchange. It was a friendship cemented by blood.
In the late 1970s, China implemented its reform and opening-up policy and began to drift away from North Korea ideologically. Then the building of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea in 1992 further damaged Sino-North Korean relations.
Today, as the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula intensifies, all eyes are on the peninsula, as well as China - whether its influence on North Korea will prevail.
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