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China needs to put this particular Genie back in it's bottle. Having a mad dog on a leash is a reckless and juvenile diplomatic strategy and we're starting to s

China needs to put this particular Genie back in it's bottle. Having a mad dog on a leash is a reckless and juvenile diplomatic strategy and we're starting to see that China doesn't have as much control over NK as it pretends to.

yclept 10y ago
Do you not think China is helping NK develop their ballistic missiles and nuclear technology?
- hga 10y ago
  One way or another that's pretty well established, when the Khan network fell apart after Gaddafi saw the light after Saddam's capture and surrendered his WMD program to us (and note how we rewarded him...), a key artifact was the plans for a Chinese designed highly enriched uranium implosion device, down to the factory floor level of detail, like apply this much torque to this nut, and use this kind of thread locker (e.g. Loctite in the US). Maybe the PRC counterintelligence guys screwed up, but....
- bcg1 10y ago
  Common sense (which probably is not worth much when it comes to international relations) suggests that without China's aid DPRK would quickly collapse. Presumably China does not want to see this happen because re-unification with South Korea would be a possible outcome (although I suspect the South Korean economy would have trouble absorbing the North Korean population without significant aid from the US and "international community"), and that would put a strong US ally right on China's border. In my mind the only peaceful resolution to this situation is a diplomatic agreement with China, which would seem to be exceedingly difficult to achieve without a massive effort on the part of the US. Unfortunately, given the level of rancor and demagoguery against China that is showing itself in US politics at the moment, not to mention provocative actions such as the TPP and Abe's desire to change Japan's constitution to arm itself, the aforementioned peaceful outcome seems unlikely to me.

yclept 10y ago

Do you not think China is helping NK develop their ballistic missiles and nuclear technology?

hga 10y ago
One way or another that's pretty well established, when the Khan network fell apart after Gaddafi saw the light after Saddam's capture and surrendered his WMD program to us (and note how we rewarded him...), a key artifact was the plans for a Chinese designed highly enriched uranium implosion device, down to the factory floor level of detail, like apply this much torque to this nut, and use this kind of thread locker (e.g. Loctite in the US). Maybe the PRC counterintelligence guys screwed up, but....
bcg1 10y ago
Common sense (which probably is not worth much when it comes to international relations) suggests that without China's aid DPRK would quickly collapse. Presumably China does not want to see this happen because re-unification with South Korea would be a possible outcome (although I suspect the South Korean economy would have trouble absorbing the North Korean population without significant aid from the US and "international community"), and that would put a strong US ally right on China's border. In my mind the only peaceful resolution to this situation is a diplomatic agreement with China, which would seem to be exceedingly difficult to achieve without a massive effort on the part of the US. Unfortunately, given the level of rancor and demagoguery against China that is showing itself in US politics at the moment, not to mention provocative actions such as the TPP and Abe's desire to change Japan's constitution to arm itself, the aforementioned peaceful outcome seems unlikely to me.