Sometimes it really is as simple as it looks.
At this point, the simple reality is that NK has hydrogen bombs and is threatening nuclear war with other major world powers, including the US, Japan and SK.
It’s not just common sense but plainly obvious that China is their primary economic and political enabler.
If China isn’t willing to cut them off completely for risking starting a nuclear war with the rest of the world then one must assume that China is not merely accepting of NK’s actions but actually WANTS and APPROVES of them.
Imagine if Canada started threatening to nuke 3 other nations on a weekly basis and launched ICBMs out into the ocean toward them all the time? Would we, as Canada’s primary economic partner and ally, prop up their rhetoric, support their government and give them all the trade they could ever want? No, we’d be horrified. We’d be apologizing to the rest of the world for them. Ultimately, we’d have to DEAL with them because they’d be inviting justifiable war onto our continent from external sources and we couldn’t allow that risk. Why doesn’t China fear that enough to act? Because they must be content with and support what is going on.
China has shown no real high level worry about NK’s actions. There’s no news storm going on right now about Chinese diplomats furiously working with NK to disarm the situation. No begging with Kim to meet with them and discuss disarming for mountains of cash and economic help. We aren’t hearing about that. No daily threats from China that they will be leading the charge to obliterate Kim’s regime if he pushes this too far. No threats to take his country from him over his bringing nuclear brinksmanship to their very doorstep.
And after all this and the hydrogen bomb test, they should have been first in line to support a total fuel embargo and an outright blockade of NK until the regime comes to the table or falls and gets replaced with something better and less dangerous to the world.
But... they don’t want regime change. Why? At this point we would probably smile and thank China for replacing Kim with a new more docile puppet government. But they don’t want to do that. Why?
What other conclusion can we come to other than NK simply IS China’s war proxy in the Pacific? That’s the only answer that covers every question.
And whether the Russians love us or hate us right now, it is very disappointing that after the Cuban missile crisis they aren’t more firmly against rampant nuclear threats. We almost learned that lesson the hard way and there wouldn’t have been any more lessons.
In a sane world no one on any side should care what happens to Kim at this point. But China still cares. And it’s making China look like an outright mortal enemy of the US and several other nations right now. That’s not good. And I’m not sure that the ambitious men ruling China fully understand how far they’ve already fallen in the eyes of the rest of the world. This proxy game is only good so long as the instigators seem apart and separate from the source. Unfortunately North Korea is so completely bizarre you can’t do anything but instantly point the finger at China and say “It only exists because of them.”