Mother China and Baby Pyongyang

A congressional report cited in the Washington Post today states that China has "indirectly" helped North Korea develop its nuclear program and over the past year has grown closer to N. Korea rather than farther apart.

Now, I don't want to surprise anyone, but I'm not sure China is our biggest ally in this. These countries are still linked by a failing ideology, and that ideology, the last time I checked, was not pro-western democracy. We should really leverage China politically because I'm not sure we have many options other than to just ignore lil' Kim or call in airstrikes, neither of which are promising alternatives. Here's hoping that China will come around, but I wouldn't bet my Che Guevara t-shirt on it.

Update:

According to this AP report, the US and North Korea have agreed to a renewal of six-party negotiations. This is promising, and I may eventually lose my Guevara t-shirt, but I'm as wary of diplomatic efforts with N. Korea as I am of Middle East peace settlements. A lasting resolution seems hard to secure.

Of course, this could be a North Korean stall tactic; if there's one thing these rogue states learn when dealing with world diplomats and especially the U.N., it's that a sudden willingness to "dialogue" covers a multitude of past transgressions.