How Many Nations Are Needed to Put the Screws on Kim?
This article is for subscribers only.
June 21 (Bloomberg) -- As U.S. President Barack Obama seeksa united front to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, he’s facingan unlikely spoiler: Japan.
Traditionally, China has played this irksome role. The six-party talks over North Korea’s nuclear program -- suspendedsince 2009 -- never got anywhere largely because China refusedto put the screws on its ally. No matter how many missiles theKim Dynasty fired off, how many nuclear tests it conducted, orhow many North Koreans starved or ended up in prison camps,China remained convinced that the alternative of a possibleregime collapse was worse.