….. food and fuel supplies sent to North Korea have been halted, not to force North Korea to stop missile tests or participate in peace talks, but to return the Chinese trains the aid was carried in on. In the last few weeks, the North Koreans have just kept the trains, sending the Chinese crews back across the border. North Korea just ignores Chinese demands that the trains be returned, and insists that the trains are part of the aid program. It’s no secret that North Korean railroad stock is falling apart, after decades of poor maintenance and not much new equipment.

I would think Chinese leaders are intensely ticked about this.

Tom
BizzyBlog.com

As for the Chinese today, this is the first time they have been the headliner on international diplomacy in a long time, and “face” is important. I don’t think they are playing a game, but they probably feel that slow and steady wins the race. The bottom line is that North Korea is a mess and China knows it. They also know that Kim is too far gone and are probably working as we speak to develop regime change there without millions of refugees.

I suspect China is playing a very deep game as well, and so far, doing a damn good job. Kim may or may not believe the Chinese will support him–hard to predict what crazy people will do, much less think. At the end of the day, China will leverage this to their advantage and squash Kim like a bug when it turns to their advantage.

I’ve worked with Asians a lot, and they have an admirable quality by and large–they take the long view. I believe China has long abandoned the notion of dominance via military power and is content to slowly eat our lunch economically (or is it ecomonicly???)

1) – We should have listened to Patton and marched into Russia.

2) – We should have pounded the crap outta China during the Korean war and finished the job until North Korea and China both sued for peace.

You give these despots an inch and they take a mile. That mile becomes so incredibly difficult to reel back in. Imagine what western Europe would have become if we would have just gone home after WWII.

Kim has to believe that China will support him. Nothing else makes sense.

The only good thing I see comming out of this is that we have the ‘Star Wars’ anti-missile program. If it is sucessfully used the next time that Kim launches his missiles that certainly wouldn’t make the nuke desiring militant countries too happpy.

Putin needs a good swift kick. I wonder if Bush is up to the task. He certainly has the opportunity right now.