I beg to differ. China's menatlity--regardless of their addiction to their god of money--is to count money lower than pride. Also, they have a chunk of reserves built up and potential production capacity and economic power building in their minds.
Sure, they have a powerkeg of systemic problems--unemployment no small example.
But on the world state--especially in military matters--Pride would trump money any time, IMHO. And, they sort of view NK as a prodigy of theirs. To some degree, their pride would be hooked by our attacking NKorea. They may not be totally happy with NKorea. But NK is THEIR mad dog, thank you very much.
I doubt anyone, including Beijing, can accurately assess the relative ranks of the Chinese cultural/leadership/zeitgeist priorities.
But being incountry during Tienanmen, I'm convinced that pride trumps all other concerns when push comes to shove. Perhaps close to that and occasionally higher is fear of chaos. If you get pride and fear of chaos pulling in the same directions as at Tienanmen--it's a forgone conclusion.
But in terms of fearing 100's of millions of people dead, the Chinese probably consider that close to not at all. AS long as they are convinced they'll have enough left to rule the world, 100's of millions dead are quite acceptable to the rulers. Of course they don't expect to be among those dead. Though some would be glad to die for the motherland.