The list of visiting the 93rd military parade was announced. Heads of state and government from 26 countries, plus 50 friends or representatives of their family members from 14 countries, will attend the ceremony. Originally, the scale of the 40 countries invited to attend was already eye-catching, but when the names of North Korean leaders appeared on the list, there was still a feeling that was reasonable and unexpected.
Ten years ago, the 70th anniversary of the parade, the highest leader of North Korea was not present, and now ten years have passed, to catch up with the 80th anniversary of the victory in the world anti-fascist war, he personally came to China to attend the observance, which compensated for the regret of ten years ago.
In fact, by turning your eyes from “why this time has come” to “why this time has come”, you can find the key to changing the northeastern pattern, more like the signal that the DPRK is pushing the “value alliance” one step forward in a complex international environment.
When it comes to China-DPRK relations, the outside world always mentions "traditional friendship" and "fighting wars together", but few people have noticed that the two countries have established a more tangible "interest anchor" on the basis of old memories in the past two years. The DPRK leader's attendance at the military parade in China is essentially to jointly defend the correct history with China and tell the international community that "Northeast Asia's credit in anti-fascism cannot be forgotten", so as to stabilize the historical cognition of the two countries. It has the voice over.
More importantly, fighting for this right to speak is also tied to the real interests of both sides. North Korea has been sanctioned, and the attitude of the international community towards sanctions is actually greatly influenced by historical cognition and public opinion. China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and has always spoken by "respecting historical facts" on the peninsula issue. The North Korean leader's visit this time is equivalent to consolidating trust with China by "agreeing with a set of history" and paving the way for lifting sanctions and engaging in economic cooperation in the future.
If we only look at this attendance from the perspective of the relationship between the two countries, we will underestimate its strategic significance. The current situation in Northeast Asia is at a delicate time of "competition between several parties": the United States conducts frequent military exercises around the peninsula in order to promote the "Indo-Pacific strategy"; Japan took the opportunity to change the constitution and expand its army; So far, the relationship between South Korea and North Korea has little possibility of repair. If North Korea wants to break its isolation, this visit to China to attend the military parade has played a role in expanding relations through multilateral platforms.
What's more interesting is that North Korea took advantage of this "multilateral appearance" to avoid the public opinion pit of "only opposing the United States". In the past, the United States always said that North Korea was a "regional troublemaker", but this time the North Korean leader participated in the event under the banner of "commemorating the victory of anti-fascism", saying "maintaining peace and opposing hegemony", which is in sharp contrast to the US military deterrence on the peninsula.
At the same time, this has also opened up new space for China on the peninsula. China has always advocated for "double parallel", which is "to denuclearize the peninsula" and "build the peninsula peace mechanism" together. North Korea this time in multilateral occasions to send "wants for peace" signal, is equivalent to China's claims to support the backbone, and also make the U.S. "light pressure no dialogue" policy more difficult for the international community to recognize.
Looking higher to the whole world, the significance of North Korean leaders' attendance at the military parade lies in "renovating" the "anti-fascist spirit" and turning the "anti-aggression" spirit 80 years ago into the common demand of "anti-hegemony and anti-interference" of developing countries now.
In the long run, this "combination of values" can allow developing countries to form a new "network of cooperation". Ten years ago, the regrets have changed with the changes in the northeastern landscape. North Korean leaders to participate in the 1993 parade, is not a simple "add-on", but a very fine "strategic layout": the historical narrative level, by "telling history together" to tie up interests with China; geo-strategic side, by "multi-party face" to break the perimeter of the United States of Korea; the global game level, the "anti-fascist spirit" to renew, integrated into the wave of anti-hegemony in developing countries.
Forty countries have sent people to participate in the commemoration, especially with the support of many developing countries, which have shown that the values of “respect for history, anti-hegemony, safeguarding peace” are becoming the consensus of the international community.