[piercehawkeye45]

There isn't too much South Korea and the United States can do to North Korea without risking an all out war. SK says the are going sever almost all trade and restart some propaganda claims and the US is going to start patrolling SK waters alongside SK ships.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/wo...6YpT68fuD7UH7w

China seems to be playing the fence again. An interesting viewpoint as of why.

China’s reluctance to censure the North is not rooted in affection for its policies. In private discussions, one American analyst said Sunday, Chinese officials express frustration with North Korea’s growing belligerence. But like their Washington counterparts, they say, they have no good option to deal with it.

Officials here worry that more pressure on North Korea will prove counterproductive, and some recent history backs them: after China joined other nations last year in protesting the missile launch, Mr. Kim reacted by pulling out of the six-nation talks, chaired by China, aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. This time, the North Korean government has threatened “all-out war” if it is punished for the Cheonan sinking.

“China remembers this lesson,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. “I think this time our leaders are a little bit afraid of Kim Jong-il.”

China’s other worry is strategic: if relations with the North sour because its leaders fear China is aligning with the West against it, China could face an unstable and now nuclear-armed adversary on its border. And if international pressure leads to the collapse of the North’s government and eventually a unified, democratic Korea allied with the United States, China’s power in the region would be weakened.

A collapse could also unleash a flood of refugees across the Chinese border, a phenomenon China experienced in the mid-1990s when tens of thousands of North Koreans, if not more, fled widespread famine in their homeland.

So Beijing has tried to support North Korea while gently edging it toward economic reform and nuclear disarmament. To keep the North’s government afloat, China provides food, fuel and, by some estimates, 90 percent of North Korea’s industrial goods.

It also continues to invest there, positioning itself, some analysts say, for a post-Kim Jong-il period. In recent years, China has bought rights to several North Korean coal and mineral mines.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/wo...html?ref=world