Korean War Outlook

[Anchor Lead]

For the first time in its history, China's state newspaper Renmin Ribao, "People's Daily," ran an article that seemingly blamed North Korea for starting the Korean War. It was backed up by supporting testimonies from Chinese scholars.

[Pkg]

This is an official social media account operated by China's Communist Party newspaper Renmin Ribao. An article about the Korean War was posted on this site last May, when a verbal feud was underway between North Korea and China following Pyongyang's rumored sixth nuclear test. The posting asked, "Why did the war start if Kim Il-sung was not thinking about unifying the Korean Peninsula?" The article criticized North Korea for dragging China into the conflict and causing hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops to be killed. Although it's just one article on its social media site, it was the first time that Renmin Ribao blamed the North for starting the Korean War. Previously, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper had agreed with Pyongyang's claim that North Korea had been invaded by South Korea or had remained silent. Professor Shen Zhihua, an authority on the Cold War in China, described in his book published this month the circumstances surrounding Kim Il-sung's preparation for war with Stalin's permission.

[Soundbite] Prof. Shen Zhihua(East China Normal University) : "Back then, Kim Il-sung or anyone else was representing Stalin's orders. If his orders were not followed, they would be replaced."

China's state news agency Xinhua has already reported that the North Korean army had started the attack to capture Seoul. Even China, which had sided with North Korea during the Korean War, is starting to acknowledge the historical fact that it was North Korea that started the war.