The U.S. Defense Department recently announced that the U.S. Forces Korea Command will station a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in the Republic of Korea (ROK) as a defensive measure against North Korea. But Russian and Chinese representatives have expressed concern about how THAAD could affect strategic stability, alliance relations, and global influence.

The missile-defense deployment will worsen the bifurcation in East Asia, where regional arrangements for economic growth are shaped with China at its core while regional security architecture is set up with the US-centered military alliances as its foundation. Should this contradictory situation evolve, neither regional economic growth nor security could be sustained.

China must keep in mind its significant interests in multiple aspects of the North Korea issue, as it tries its best to balance such interests under difficult circumstances and create conditions for improving China-DPRK ties while preserving its mutual security and stability goals with Washington and Seoul.

The high-altitude system would achieve none of its stated goals if deployed, but would shake the fragile trust of Beijing and Moscow toward Washington. The US should learn some lessons from the Cuban missile crisis and NATO’s eastward expansion, understand and respect other countries’ security concerns, and take some concrete measures to ease instead of aggravate the tension in the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang should pay a price for its violation of Security Council resolutions, but punishment by itself will not magically solve the nuclear problem. If sanctions could not be translated into a strategic rethink, they will only add more pain to the ordinary North Koreans' already miserable life.

While the world’s attention has been focused on North Korea’s recent nuclear test and satellite launch, important developments regarding the nuclear issue were also taking place in South Korea. Recent developments suggest that the patience of the South Korean people and some members of the political elite is wearing thin.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will hold talks this week in Washington to discuss how to deal with North Korea's latest nuclear test and launch of a long-range rocket, China's foreign ministry said Monday.

The United States and China have been in discussions about the possible deployment of an advanced American missile defense system in South Korea, a diplomatic source with knowledge of the matter said Monday.

Many U.S. policymakers see China as the answer to North Korean proliferation, but the People’s Republic of China has not yet proved willing to abandon its sole ally. China’s interest is almost purely negative, avoiding what the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea could become.

In Chinese academic and policy circles, emotional attachment to North Korea is steadily draining away, which creates an opportunity for Washington to persuade the PRC to change its policy toward the nation.