China Gets Failing Grade on North Korea
In Beijing’s view, the current crisis was largely created by U.S. belligerence, and thus the onus is primarily on Washington to fix it, with China acting as facilitator.
.. An irritated China on Tuesday hit back at U.S. pressure to do more. “The ‘China responsibility theory’ on the peninsula nuclear issue can stop,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Yet China is Pyongyang’s enabler: Up to 90% of North Korea’s foreign trade runs through its neighbor. And commerce is surging; Pyongyang is a bustling capital.
Beijing appears to believe that living with a nuclear North Korea is preferable to the alternatives: the collapse of its socialist ally spilling refugees into its industrial heartland and bringing U.S. troops to its border.
.. How would Beijing respond if Taiwan reactivated its nuclear program?..But then, the unthinkable is now reality: President Trump talks about a “major, major conflict.”.. Seoul didn’t drop the effort until 1980—after the U.S. suspended a plan to pull out troops.. A North Korea capable of hitting the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile would, once again, raise questions about U.S. willingness to come to the rescue. Would Washington risk Seattle for Seoul? That, in turn, might spur demands for a homegrown nuclear deterrent.