Destabilization, that's what the Korean Peninsula, perhaps the whole of Northeast Asia, has been moving toward for the past year. Amid this scenario, China and the Republic of Korea have been developing a new mode of bilateral cooperation on security. And Defense Minister Chang Wanquan's three-day visit to Seoul that ended on Feb 5 has not only boosted this process, but also highlighted the importance of the frequent China-ROK interactions.

First, the two countries agree on the basic premise of pushing for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and restoring peace and stability in the region. At his meeting with ROK President Park Geun-hye on Feb 4, Chang conveyed China's eagerness to resume the Six-Party Talks, while the ROK insisted that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea first stop making provocative moves against it.

On deepening defense cooperation, Chang and his ROK counterpart Han Min-koo agreed to expedite negotiations for establishing a military hotline, and discussed ways to launch joint actions against non-traditional security threats such as pirates and cyber terrorists.

Beijing and Seoul are clear about resolving mutual disagreements and doubts. For example, for the first time Chang raised China's concern over the US-led Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense missile system, which was reportedly deployed in the ROK. In response, Han said Seoul had not signed any agreement with Washington to deploy it.

The new mode of security-based cooperation between Seoul and Beijing depends mostly on sound mutual and regional security cooperation to remove perceptual differences and thus avoid confrontation.

The dilemma over security between countries has been attributed mainly to their choice of priority - national interests taking precedence over regional interests. The fact is, a country can never be safe without a stable neighborhood or region. And by cooperating to keep the whole of Northeast Asia secure, Beijing and Seoul now more deeply appreciate the significance of a peaceful neighborhood.

Second, countries like the United States that still exhibit the Cold War mentality have exploited the perceptual disagreements among states and hampered their joint efforts to counter mutual security threats such as terrorism. This is irrational and irresponsible, especially because the need is to shelve the differences over ideologies and work for regional and global peace and security.

The constructive exchanges between Beijing and Seoul on security issues are a step toward a healthy "new normal" in bilateral and even multilateral cooperation, marked by equal importance to every country's efforts, to maintain regional stability. The twisted development of the US-ROK alliance and the US-Japan alliance after the end of the Cold War pushed the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war instead of denuclearizing it. Even today there is a dangerous coexistence of US-led military alliances and the DPRK's nuclear potential.

Although Beijing and Seoul are moving toward the highest level of security cooperation, Northeast Asia is still far from seeing permanent peace because the US strategy for the reunification of two Koreas involves force, supported by its close allies Japan and the ROK, as opposed to China's peaceful approach based on the stalled Six-Party Talks.

Over the past year chaotic changes have taken place on the Peninsula that have resulted in Washington's declining role in Korean affairs, partly for imposing one sanction after another on Pyongyang which, in turn, has made the latter more determined to conduct nuclear tests.

Apparently, this also has "cooled" relations between Beijing and Pyongyang, and prompted DPRK leader Kim Jong-un to speculatively seek support from Russia and even Japan. Given the reigning chaos in the region, all parties to the Six-Party Talks (the DPRK, the ROK, the US, Japan, Russia and China) should update their ways of thinking and seek a solution that benefits all. In this regard, the China-ROK cooperative spirit will be of immense help.

The author is a professor with Northeast Asia Studies College of Jilin University in Jilin province.

(China Daily 02/07/2015 page5)