Quote:
Originally Posted by elysiantraveller
North Korea appears to have the most leverage though... it's very hard to ascertain what is going on back-channel with China but even there they have the leverage.
China and the region for that matter can't afford to lose the regime. It has little option but to prop it up.
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For all the buzz, North Korea hasn't given up anything yet. All they have agreed to is to stop nuke and missile tests. They have operational nukes, and the fiasco at their test site shut them down anyway, so they are posing as good guys about that. Their ICBM program "capable of hitting" Washington was just trash talk from the beginning. Their goal was to get nukes with a delivery system capable of hitting South Korea, and if necessary, other US bases in the area. They have that now.
China likes having NK play the bad guy role in the area, so they look reasonable and statesman like by comparison. And China does not want a free, capitalist society on its border.
