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Friday, June 16, 2017

It Seemed Like Such a Good Idea at the Time

The Chinese might want to consider whether their client state North Korea bows and scrapes to Peking because the North Koreans don't have much choice for now.

Oh, for decades it was all fun and games for China--oh how they laughed!--when North Korea threatened South Korea, Japan, and America with nuclear seas of fire. But now?

China is within striking distance of North Korea's nuclear-tipped missiles, a North Korean lecturer told a group of state officials about a week after the test of the midrange missile Hwasong-12.

The statement is an unusual expression of overt hostility from Pyongyang toward its most important economic partner.

On the one hand, the statement is just the obvious. China would be in the blast radius of a North Korean nuke moved by train and detonated on the North Korean side of the Yalu River.

But North Korea made the effort to make the ant-China statement.

So if China doesn't agree to do something about North Korea's nuclear ambitions (alone or with America and our allies), China might get nations like Japan and South Korea armed with both missile defenses and offensive nuclear missiles to hold off a North Korean nuclear threat plus a North Korea that feels free to threaten China when the North Koreans believe they can get away with it.

Bravo.