UPSC Key: Bilateral Investment Treaties, SIPRI Yearbook 2026 and Solar power
Main Examination:
• General Studies I: History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.— their forms and effect on the society. • General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, What’s the ongoing story: Weeks after US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin undertook official visits to Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping will head to North Korea on Monday (June 7) for a two-day trip. Key Points to Ponder: • Map Work-North Korea and China • What is the relationship between China and North Korea? • How much does North Korea depend on China? • Why does China need North Korea? • What may be prompting China’s outreach to North Korea at this moment? • What are the implications of closer China–North Korea ties for Indo-Pacific security? • Can you establish a connection between communism, capitalism, and Korea? • What you about the Korean War? • What led to the divide in the Korean peninsula? Key Takeaways: • At a time when China is being viewed as a key player in world politics, albeit at times a measured or reluctant one, and with several major conflicts raging globally, a trip to the hermit kingdom may seem surprising. It comes seven years after Xi’s last visit to Pyongyang, while North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un last went to Beijing in 2025 for a World War 2 anniversary parade. • On the face of it, an industrial behemoth such as China might seem to have little to gain from one of the poorest and least integrated nations in the world, and in material terms, that is largely true. But since the founding of both nations in 1949 and 1948, respectively, geopolitical circumstances have strongly defined the ties. • After the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945, emerging superpowers sought to take control of the region’s fate. Under the policy of “Containment” and the possibility of the spread of Communism, the United States sought to prevent the USSR and China from having another ally in the region. • According to the Wilson Quarterly, a journal published by the Washington DC-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, China’s involvement in the war and support for North Korea stemmed from its reading of US military actions. Shortly after Japan’s surrender in World War 2, forces of the USSR and the US took control of the northern and southern regions of Korea, and over time, those divisions hardened. Do You Know: • According to the NCERT textbook, the Japanese colonial rule ended after 35 years in August 1945 with Japan’s defeat in the World War II. However, it was the continued efforts of independence activists both inside and outside Korea that ensured Korea’s independence after Japan’s defeat. Following liberation, the Korean Peninsula was temporarily divided along the 38th parallel with the Soviets managing the North and the U.N. managing the South even as the nations worked to disband the Japanese forces in the region. However, this division became permanent as separate governments were established in both the North and the South in 1948. • In June 1950, the Korean War broke out. With South Korea receiving support from the US-led United Nations forces and North Korea receiving support from communist China, it developed into a vintage proxy war of the Cold War era. In July 1953, after three years, the war ended in an armistice agreement. Korea remained divided. The Korean War had caused not only massive losses of life and property, but also a delay in free-market economic development and democratisation. Prices suddenly rose due to inflation caused by increased national e
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