TOKYO -- The crackdown by the Chinese People's Liberation Army 29 years ago today against student protesters was one of a series of historic events in 1989 that transformed global politics. But the tanks that crushed the democratic uprising at Beijing's Tiananmen Square also spurred changes in the relationship between China and North Korea that echo loudly in 2018.
Struggling under heavy international sanctions imposed after Tiananmen, China embarked on economic reforms to break the impasse. One piece of this puzzle involved normalizing diplomatic relations in 1992 with South Korea, the bustling economy across the Yellow Sea.
