Sourced: The National Interest
By Robert E Kelly
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un just met Chinese leader Xi Jinping. This comes on the cusp of Kim’s meetings with South Korean president Moon Jae-in in April and, possibly, U.S. president Donald Trump in May.
Much of the initial analysis has focused on the importance of North Korea securing Chinese support in the upcoming talks, Beijing’s desire for an informal role in any evolving deal, or the novelty of Kim Jong-un travelling abroad. All of that is correct.
But the meeting also just disproved a long-standing Chinese argument about why Beijing is not much to blame for North Korea’s behavior. And it tells Trump that his instincts to go to China about North Korea were right all along, and that the United States must still go through China if it wants a final deal that will really stick.
Read more at: http://nationalinterest.org/feature/north-koreas-visit-proves-china-has-leverage-25108