The Death of An(other) Alliance?

Thank you, Vice Foreign Minister Obvious!

North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan reportedly told North Korea specialists in the United States that China is “only trying to use” North Korea. Kim was in the U.S. for talks on normalizing bilateral ties.  [Chosun Ilbo]

I take it His Porcine Majesty did not enjoy the buffet at the Chinese Embassy.  Or, more likely, this is just disinformation:

China has no great influence on North Korea, he was quoted as saying, adding the U.S. should not pin too great hopes on China in finding solutions to the nuclear problem. The chief nuclear negotiator said the U.S. over the last six years relied on China for the solution to the nuclear issue. “What has it achieved? We have test-fired missiles and conducted a nuclear test, doing what we wanted to do. China has solved nothing,” the source quoted him as saying.

I often hear intelligent people speak of China’s government  as though it were  a pouty debutante with a wounded ego.  I don’t believe that world powers operate on that level, and I think the Chinese in particular  are smarter than that.  It’s no state secret that they’re using North Korea to distract U.S. military and diplomatic power.  To be able to do that while minimizing consequences for its relations with the United States, China has to persuade us that it can’t control North Korea, which of course it can.  North Korea shares  China’s interest in peddling that line, both for domestic consumption and because it  doesn’t want more pressure on China  to pressure  North Korea.

[Afterthought: … and because North Korea would like us to make our checks payable to Kim Jong Il.]