[garbageseeker]

China should be held responsible for North Koreas actions. After all, North Korea and China have a very cozy diplomatic relationship. China supplies North Korea with energy, food and quite possibly with munitions.

[brain bleeds red]

Punish them by giving Japan the Nuke!

[kinetics]

After all, North Korea and China have a very cozy diplomatic relationship. China supplies North Korea with energy, food and quite possibly with munitions.

So does Japan and South Korea. I don't think China has the leverage that so many think it has. North Korea is like Vietnam to China.

[G. Stolyarov II]

"Had China not intervened in the Korean War in the 1950s, sending its own forces in to fight U.S. forces, North Korea would not exist today --- and all of the Korean peninsula would be free and democratic..."

While true, this statement is absolutely irrelevant to today's situation. The China of Hu Jintao is *not* the China of Mao Zedong, nor does the current Chinese government bear responsibility for the aid Mao offered to North Korea. People should not be held liable for the sins of their fathers or their political predecessors.

The lag of Chinese support for countermeasures to Kim Jong Il's blatant misbehavior is unfortunate, and I agree that pressure should be exerted to at least make sure the current Chinese government does not interfere with U. S. and Western efforts to restrain Kim's dictatorship. However, we should be careful to not demonize the Chinese while doing so; China is steadily becoming a free-market country, and its government is socialist in name only. It is still repressive in some areas (especially individual political expression), but this has improved and will improve with time. Most importantly, its government is reasonable to deal with -- unlike that of Kim Jong Il.

I am
G. Stolyarov II
http://www.panasianbiz.com
http://www.thebizofknowledge.com
http://www.risingsunofnihon.com
http://www.zhonghuarising.com
http://rationalargumentator.com
http://rationalbusinessjournal.rationalargumentator.com

[Uriah_lost]

One thing that China always responds to is humiliation. Someone really needs to press the story about NK keeping the trains that China sends in loaded with food. It seems that NK is just sending back the crews of the trains and keeping the trains AND cargo. A little mocking of China's inability to keep little old North Korea in line could go a long way.

[nonliberal]

China supplies North Korea with energy, food and quite possibly with munitions.

All supplied by MFN and Bill Clinton's treason.

[lilylangtree]

Absolutely correctamundo! Hold China responsible. China's indirectly ruled the country anyway.

[Cinnamon]

give Japan a fully stocked Nuclear Submarine..

[Last Dakotan]

The US will do....wait for it.... absolutely nothing.

For clean access to our markets, the US isn't getting a very good deal.

[Cobra64]

Forget it. We don't even have the stones to do the right things here at home.

[Thunder90]

"China should be held responsible for North Korea's actions. After all, North Korea and China have a very cozy diplomatic relationship. China supplies North Korea with energy, food and quite possibly with munitions."

Don't forget our friends the Russians. They were the ones who sold N. Korea the technology for their Scud missiles. Also, Russia sells N. Korea the energy for the N.Korean military, as well as most of the tanks their army uses. Also, Russia and China are in the same regional bloc, the Shanghai Cooperative Organization.

[Thunder90]

The Russians flew the air cover for the Chinese in the Korean War.

[Brytani]

Forget the UN, if we really want to punish China, take away their trading status, stop allowing Wal-Mart to purchase from them, and take away the Olympics.

I can dream, right?

[rvoitier]

I don't understand it buy I've heard that people who do say China could snap us like a twig over the trade imbalance.

Our best bet is for Japan to go nuclear and continue improving on SDI.