Actually, this crisis can be an opportunity for Hu Jing-Tao to expand his power base by purging the Shanghai mafia headed by Jiang Zemin. A lot of Jiang's cronies are in charge of many important posts now. Hu can brand them as incompetent and corrupt. He could then sweep them aside, bring in his own people.
We will see how the power struggle unfolds. It is interesting to see how much mileage Hu can get out of this. Since he is in power only for a short time, he can reasonably claim his innocence, while blaming the crisis on Jiang's cronies.
Who is it who has been pulling on the reins on N.Korea?