Over the past year, a confluence of factors has emerged to create an appropriate moment for South Korea to lay down an ultimatum to China on the issue of North Korea. Seoul has a strong reason to try this gambit, given that President Park has gone out of her way to build relations with Beijing over the past few years without much to show for her efforts. Moreover, North Korea’s continued pursuit of nuclear and missile development provides enough justification for the United States and South Korea to officially discuss the deployment of THAAD. At the same time, the Japan-South Korea relationship has just seen a breakthrough to create additional room for trilateral cooperation with the United States. Now is the time to force Xi Jinping to make a choice: Will China be a “responsible stakeholder,” or will it be the enabler of a rogue state that is threatening the peace and security in Northeast Asia and beyond?

Sungtae “Jacky” Park is research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations and is the author of The Korean Pivot and the Return of Great Power Politics in Northeast Asia.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Army