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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (AP/Yonhap News)

North Korea is bluntly denouncing China for its cooperation in pressure against North Korea, which it says crosses a “red line” in bilateral relations.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry fired back that it had handled relations with Pyongyang from a “fair perspective,” while Chinese media claims of North Korea’s nuclear program as a violation of its mutual aid agreement with China showed the war of words between the two sides escalating to potentially dangerous levels.

The May 4 edition of the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North Korean Workers’ Party, included a personal commentary at the top of page six titled “We Must Refrain from Further Reckless Actions that Strike at the Pillars of North Korea-China Relations.” It was a reprint of an article published the evening before by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) - this time in a medium expressing the party’s official position.

In the commentary, the newspaper noted “very serious internal and external concerns about the way the anti-republic sanctions and military pressure ruckus over our possessing nuclear weapons are crossing the line.”

“Yet the current situation is being driven further toward tensions with unreasonable and indiscriminate words coming day after day from large neighboring countries, which are perhaps worried about the noisy threats and roar of war coming in from the US,” it continued.

“To simply parrot the US’s shameless claims of the ‘international community’s united opinion’ and to paint us as criminals and focus on the brutal sport of sanctions is intolerable rashness that seeks to negate the basis of North Korea-China relations and erase a noble tradition of goodwill.”

The newspaper went on to say that China “must fully understand that we can never change or waver in our course of possessing nuclear weapons for the survival and advancement of the state, and that no matter how valuable goodwill between North Korea and China is, we are not ones for beginning that would mean trading away the nuclear weapons that are like our lifeblood.”

“The ones who have crossed the red line in North Korea-China relations are China, not us,” it asserted.

KCNA printed personal commentaries criticizing China on Apr. 21 and Feb. 23. Those commentaries, however, avoided mentioning China by name, using only indirect terms such as “neighboring countries” and “ostensible ‘powers.’”

A South Korean Ministry of Unification official said it was “highly unusual for North Korea to denounce China by name,” but added that “the choice of a personal commentary as a format rather than [a commentary] from the Foreign Ministry of another official agency suggests it was trying to moderate the force of its denunciation.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang addressed the comments at a regular briefing on May 4.

“China's position on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula is consistent and clear, and so is our position on developing good-neighborly and friendly relations with the DPRK,” Geng said.

“For years, the Chinese side has been assessing and dealing with the relevant issue based on its own merits in an objective and impartial manner,” he added.

Some Chinese observers say North Korea’s vehement response raises fundamental questions about Beijing’s ties with Pyongyang. Xiakedao, a social media account run by the overseas edition of the state-run People’s Daily, responded on May 4 by noting that KCNA had “printed an intense piece.”

“While we do not intend to argue, we have a few words to say,” it said.

In its response, the account said North Korea “is drawing a border with its nuclear weapons and saying ‘you’re an enemy if you oppose them and a friend if you support them.’”

“By this equation, North Korea has no friend. The whole world is its enemy,” it added.

“While the US has been ramping up military pressure for the past four months, China’s shuttle diplomacy has given North Korea practical opportunities to change its diplomatic line. North Korea should be grateful for China’s diplomatic efforts,” the response continued.

“China and North Korea no longer have the traditional friendly relationship,” it added, arguing that “bilateral relations need to be redefined for the new zeitgeist.”

In an editorial the same day, the People’s Daily sister publication Global Times called North Korea’s nuclear program a violation of its friendship, cooperation, and mutual aid agreement with China, and seemingly called for that agreement’s reconsideration.

“The agreement is resolute in its opposition to invasion, yet North Korea has insisted on developing nuclear weapons in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and increasing the risk of a military clash between North Korea and the US,” the newspaper said.

“This situation is something unforeseen at the time the agreement was signed [in 1961], and much different from when it was last extended in 2001.”

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent, and Jung In-hwan, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]