China dragged NK by the ear to the first 6 party talks. Providing 90% of the oil NK uses & about 50% of their grain imports gives China a lot of leverage over NK.
The "back door" deal would be what the US did to get China to use its leverage. Getting Washington to back off from economically isolating NK kinda looks like China told NK that American pressure was going to work if NK didn't quit dinking around.
NO THEY DIDN'T !
"If the U.S. makes a concession to some degree, we will also make a concession to some degree, whether it be bilateral talks or six-party talks," Kim was quoted as telling a Chinese envoy,
Tell me, what are the issues here? What did Kim il Dong have to do in order for Bush to give N korea things they want?
Who refused to sit down and discuss them? It wasn't Bush. It was Kim. It was Bush who insisted they be tri-lateral talks at min. In Order for kim to get ANYTHING from the USA, they have to do what? HINT: STOP their nuclear program.
Bush is NOT going to give Kim Ding Dong concessions just so he will sit down and talk. He has to earn talks and rewards by halting his nuclear program
Maybe, but I think that China began to fear the monster they created, and realized that if they don't get tough, and really mean it, that North Korea's one million man army, backed with modern equipment and nuclear bombs, would perhaps in the near future, (after they built up their nuclear arsenal) decide to take China on and stretch their border.
The bottom line though, is that China got tough and NK responded. America spoke tough and NK called our bluff. This is the embarrassing part of the equation, and it shows Iran and other enemies that we lack a serious political will to use the weapons we have at our disposal, and to back up what we say. Conquering Iraq and Afghanistan is great, but until we topple the government of our far more dangerous enemy, Iran, and begin seizing some N. Korean ships suspected of carrying banned cargo and the like, we will be viewed as a paper tiger.