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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-chinese-militaries-take-steps-to-coordinate-more-closely-1502812501\nU.S., China Militaries Set Up Speed Dial to Avoid Inadvertent North Korea War\nA potential crisis looms large as the American and Chinese armed forces establish new ties\nGen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in white fatigues, was accompanied by military and Trump administration officials in April.\nPhoto: dominique a. pineiro/DoD/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images\nGordon Lubold\n@glubold\ngordon.lubold@wsj.com\nJeremy Page\n@JNBPage\nJeremy.Page@wsj.com\nUpdated Aug. 15, 2017 10:17 pm ET\nBEIJING—The Pentagon’s top military officer will make a rare visit on Wednesday to the Chinese armed-forces command that oversees the territory bordering North Korea, a move experts say suggests Beijing’s displeasure with Pyongyang.\nChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford, the officer, also signed a deal with his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday to formalize and increase operational communication between the U.S. and Chinese militaries, officials from both sides said.\nGen. Dunford’s visit was planned well before North Korea threatened to attack Guam, but the two developments reflect mounting concern on both sides that the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs could lead to military miscalculations between the U.S. and China, analysts said.\nAs tensions rise once again between North Korea and the U.S., Seoul is caught in the middle. If war should break out, just how prepared is South Korea to defend itself? Photo: Associated Press\nThe Trump administration has pressed China to do more to rein in North Korea, leading to Beijing’s support for new United Nations sanctions this month.\nBut North Korea has defied Chinese pressure, testing two new intercontinental ballistic missiles last month that experts say are capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.\nGen. Dunford arrived in Beijing from Seoul, the South Korean capital, on Monday evening, a few hours before North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backed away from his threat to fire ballistic missiles toward Guam.\nGen. Dunford is expected to see Chinese forces training and demonstrating some of their capabilities at the Northern Theater Command headquarters in the northeastern city of Shenyang on Wednesday, the Chinese and U.S. officials said.\nIn recent months, China has been bolstering border defenses and modernizing and retraining forces in the Northern Theater Command to prepare for a potential crisis in North Korea, including the possibility of a U.S. military strike, say military experts.\nChina has long feared that regime collapse in Pyongyang could trigger a flood of North Korean refugees into northeastern China and ultimately create a united, democratic, and pro-American Korea that would bring U.S. forces closer to the Chinese border.\nChina’s contingency plans range from establishing refugee camps across the border to seizing North Korean nuclear facilities, and sending forces to prevent U.S. and South Korean troops from advancing beyond the 38th Parallel, military experts say.\nBeijing has repeatedly rebuffed U.S. requests to discuss planning for North Korean contingencies, U.S. official say.\nIn recent weeks, however, China has shown signs of willingness to establish better mechanisms to communicate with the U.S. military in the event of a crisis, they say.\nLate on Tuesday, Gen. Dunford signed the Joint Staff Dialogue Mechanism with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Fang Fenghui, at the ceremonial headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA. The agreement calls for a formal dialogue to commence in Washington in November, U.S. military officials said. The context of North Korea was clear as the two sides met.\n“The last several months have incentivized both sides to take this step,” said one U.S. military official.\nOfficials stressed that the new agreement was a “hopeful first step” in bringing closer together the two militaries so they can coordinate better. But they cautioned it would only be valuable if it led to substantive discussion between the Pentagon and the PLA.\n“We hope this leads to reducing the risk of miscalculation, but it is only useful if it leads to communication that actually reduces the risk of miscalculation,” said the U.S. military official.\nMilitary exchanges between the two sides are already limited by U.S. law and American officials stressed that the two sides wouldn’t begin to cooperate under the deal but would at least be able to prevent misunderstanding about each other’s actions.\nThe perils of miscommunication have grown higher since North Korea’s threats and U.S. President Donald Trump’s counterthreats created a crisis in the region.\n“Military to military relations will result in mitigating the risk of miscalculation, and making sure that we have the ability to communicate in a crisis,” Gen. Dunford said earlier this week with a clear eye on North Korea.\n“I think Beijing is certainly losing patience with Kim Jong Un and has been for some time, but not yet to the point where they want to make a complete break,” said Kelly Magsamen, a former senior policy official at the Pentagon on Asia under the Obama administration. “They want to keep the fish on the line, alternating between reeling it in and letting it out. I’m not sure we have hit the point where China feels it’s long term interests are at risk enough to justify a wholesale change in their strategy.”\nMs. Magsamen praised the idea of a more robust military-to-military channel but noted it is important to have that at a much higher level, too.\nThe Pentagon has long sought a more structured approach to communicating with the PLA. A hotline established in 2007 to be a direct channel between the two defense ministries is only occasionally used, including this winter when the Chinese scooped up an American underwater drone.\nU.S. officials hope the new accord will lead to more communication channels between operational commanders at several levels, with better protocols for communication with each other, eventually superseding the phone line.\nMilitary officials said a similar agreement between the U.S. and Russia served as a new model this new agreement between the American and Chinese militaries. In 2015, the U.S. and Russia agreed to establish regular contact to “deconflict” operations in Syria.\nIn that arrangement, a telephone line allows routine coordination at the colonel-level to avoid any inadvertent contact. For example, if U.S. forces or aircraft are operating in one area, the Russian military is made aware of it and vice versa. But the agreement calls for higher level exchanges, including a dialogue between the U.S. war commander in Iraq and Syria, and includes regular contact at the three-star general level on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.\nGen. Dunford and his staff are meeting counterparts and other commanders of the PLA. U.S. officials said they expect Gen. Dunford to hear the litany of concerns from the Chinese, from American naval patrols in the South China Sea and reconnaissance air operations, U.S. policy and arms sales toward Taiwan to the deployment of a controversial missile system in South Korea this spring that Beijing sees as a threat.\nWrite to Gordon Lubold at Gordon.Lubold@wsj.com and Jeremy Page at jeremy.page@wsj.com\nAppeared in the August 16, 2017, print edition as '.'\nShow Conversation Hide Conversation (24)\nJCPenney:\nExtra 30% off sitewide - JCPenney coupon\nPostmates:\n$5 off first 5 orders with Postmates promo code"