While too narcissistic as a nation to see it, some things simply are not the legitimate business of the US. We are in no position to tell others how to live their lives. Not as long as we start gratuitous wars, attempt assassination of foreign leaders, transfer people to foreign powers to be tortured, kill Muslim civilians at random, and so on.

A sordid record, we have. We should shut up and clean out own house before lecturing others. Do you think they’ll listen?

China has created a monster with N Korea, an ally and a buffer state, but now one that has gone a little loopy, to say the least. NK is a troublesome ally, at best, but she would make a positively deadly enemy, especially if NK felt it was isolated, abandoned and betrayed by her Beijing buddies. Wait till the Koreans finally realize that China has now embarked on a long, one way stroll down that ole Capitalist Road…

For their part, the Chinese see Korea as a potential military adversary, a belligerent and psychotic friend with a chip on his shoulder (“My Chinese buddy here can whup any damn biker in this saloon!”)a bottomless source of hungry and desperate refugees ready to flood into China, or at best, as an endless drain on her own resources. Korea is the Joe Pesci character in Goodfellas, an out of control maniac who for the time being is on your side, but who can’t be trusted not to go berserk when its least convenient.

And the Chinese are in a very poor position to intimidate the Koreans, one of the most heavily armed nations on earth. Hell, they couldn’t even successfully push the Vietnamese around.

I say the best bet for the US and our allies is for the PRC and NK to stay in the same troubled marriage they find themselves in right now. And the last thing China wants is a nuclear war on her borders, especially a war in which she has nothing to gain, everything to lose, and no way to get out of.