Kim is a proxy for China. He can and wil act on China’s behalf, while China keeps a poker face and laments those bad North Koreans, and those naughty things they did.
Meanwhile, in the crater that used to be a major U. S. City, nobody voices any complaints.
You are right - Chine and NK are joined at the hip and they have been since WWII. The were the major force in Korea when the war was going on in the early 50’s.
An EMP would cause more devastation.
This is true. China uses the Norks to pull our chain. Trump knows what to do to induce China to rein them in.
"Dropped Knife" strategy. Someone malevolent enough will pick it up and use it. Which is the whole idea of transferring nuclear technology to dirtbag governments.
Insane jihadis armed with nuclear weapons devastating the West and Russia appears to be the basic Chinese foreign policy. We need to negate that by doing what Jack Kennedy did: Go to the head office, offer the Chinese massive retaliation if they or their "dropped knife" proxies and subproxies go nuclear on a Western country.
The Chinese think they can take a nuclear strike and ride it out, enough Chinese surviving to guarantee the continuation of a Han Chinese Empire, which is what China really is.
We have to guarantee them that the Han Chinese will effectively disappear from the face of the earth in any general exchange. That is the only offer that will impress them.