What to do about North Korea?

So the US is getting its knickers in a twist about potential nuclear cooperation between North Korea and “Myanmar”, whatever that is. I’m not sure we need to be worrying just yet. The idea of Burma developing an independent nuclear deterrent, whatever help they may get, will remain ludicrous for the foreseeable future. The nation that ought to be worrying is not the USA but China.

The official Chinese position has always been that no country should interfere in the internal affairs of another, and should always deal with the government in power as a genuine representative of the nation. (Taiwan always excepted.) And thus however madly regimes like the North Korean or the Burmese behave, they will always find principled support in Beijing.

But for some time now North Korea has been stretching China’s tolerance to the limit. Their horrible regime causes endless tension on the peninsula and a permanent refugee problem in North-East China; and the nuclear games might at some point release a deeply undesirable genie in the form of Japanese nuclear defence. So far the Burmese dictators have retained Chinese goodwill by standing for stability; but they had better not rock the boat too far. There are plenty of Chinese thinkers who realise that a free Burma and a united Korea are ultimately a better bet in terms of stability, as both would be dependent on good relations with China.

And the future of North Korea is clearly China’s call, if only for geographical reasons. Sooner or later they will have to grasp the nettle: a responsible world power can no longer maintain this “all governments have equal rights” position. They will have to abandon all that and put an end to this ghastly regime, if it doesn’t collapse first on the death of the Dear Leader. And let’s hope that the Rangoon junta comes down with them.