Abstract
« Over the past 60 years, the great China-DPRK friendship, created by the older generations in the fights of blood and fire, has withstood various tests of international vicissitudes. » As stated by Mr Liu Xiaoming, ambassador of China in North Korea, the PRC is and has been for more than half a century one of Pyongyang's most reliable allies.
Today, Beijing is North Korea's closest ally, largest provider of food, fuel and industrial machinery, and is the country most able to influence Pyongyang's policies. China has been on Pyongyang's side ever since Chinese fighters flooded onto the Korean Peninsula to fight for the Communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1950. Since that date, China has given both political and economic backing to North Korea's leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il. In recent years, China has been seen as one of the authoritarian regime's very few allies.
