The intensifying “Second Cold War” between the U.S. and China is having major ramifications across East Asia, and its impact on the Korean peninsula could be surprisingly long-lasting. Indeed, perhaps the history textbooks of the future will tell of how souring relations between Moscow and Beijing killed off any remaining hope of Korean unification. 

The present-day confrontation with the U.S. seems to be strengthening China’s resolve to prevent the collapse of North Korea. But it wasn’t always this way.