China's Unstable North Korean Toehold

Nosing around China's border with North Korea last December I found myself wondering--as usual--why I'd had to travel so far to learn a very obvious truth. (Yes, this is another complaint about the fecklessness of our media.) In this case, I realized from local conditions that, in our lifetime, China would not sign on to any genuine pressure on North Korea. Even now that the North stands accused of gratuitously sinking a South Korean warship, China's will do little more than tut-tut and equivocate and make soothing noises. I wrote a column soon after my return from the Chinese border city of Hunchun, explaining the nature of the bond between the two countries. As the U.S. turns up the heat on Pyongyang and Beijing to help in the process, the column acquires fresh urgency....
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