No, you misunderstood my post.
I said that China won’t hit us back if we pre-empt, because (in addition to it not being in their interest) we would not pre-empt unless the threat was imminent. IOW, I don’t think that we’re GOING to strike NK right now, not unless we think that they are going to launch within hours or minutes.
“Going to” expresses my view of reality (which is to say, today’s political realities. It does NOT express my policy preferences - that is a different matter altogether. On that score, I differ completely with Susan Rice and everyone on that side of the fence. NK is an extremely unstable country, led by someone who appears to be quite the lunatic. Even if he is replaced, the mechanisms have LONG been in place for a similar dictator to just step in to Kim’s shoes. NK and its leadership have proven that they are not in the least bit responsible (quite to the contrary), and now that they have both nukes and long-range delivery systems, something MUST be done. This is not the Soviet Union, which was an aggressive enemy - but rational and subject to deterrence. We dare not wait until the NK’s develop rockets that are more accurate and reliable, nor fusion weapons that can be miniaturized enough to fit on top of those rockets and be delivered on target in working order.
If it were up to me, I’d unleash Hell on the NKs, unless China reined them in SOON and BIG. That will not only eliminate that one (potentially very large) problem, but will serve as an object lesson to an unnamed random country situated on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf, just to the east of Iraq.