North Korea’s latest provocation puts China on the spot

The world’s last Stalinist state shows no sign of changing its strange, dangerous ways

South Koreans watch a news report on North Korea's bomb test in a Seoul train station (JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images)

Was it an H-bomb or a mere atom bomb? The details of North Korea’s New Year gift to the world, an underground nuclear test, are important. An H-bomb would add range to the hermit kingdom’s belligerence, with the ultimate dream being a nuclear missile that could reach America itself. A terrifying prospect.

And yet to North Korea’s most important friend – an admittedly sparse field – it hardly seems to matter. To Beijing the fact of these nuclear antics is sufficient reason for anger.

Above all, it threatens China’s economic renaissance, already looking more fragile, by damaging relations with the US and putting investors off the whole region; and the Chinese resent their citizens being exposed to radiation.

China would love North Korea to behave responsibly – but has surprisingly little leverage and relations are worsening. One of the more bizarre recent incidents was the cancellation of a Beijing concert by the North Korean pop group Moranbong, a Kim Jong-un inspired version of the Spice Girls. There was a spat about the lack of senior Chinese officials scheduled to attend the gig, and Beijing objected to a lyric about America being an “ambitious wolf” (mild by North Korean standards). Mr Kim’s girl band promptly left the country, a rude gesture. China, though, is unwilling to sink Mr Kim, even if it could, because a united Korea might entail US troops on its border; it also frets about Russia replacing it in Mr Kim’s affections.

Yet, in his New Year message Mr Kim made doveish noises about South Korea, and was publicly moved by the death, in an apparent car accident, of North Korea’s principal negotiator with Seoul. At times, especially under President Clinton’s “sunshine” policy of détente, the North has been friendlier; but a missile lobbed towards its capitalist neighbours was never far behind. The world’s last Stalinist state shows no sign of changing its strange, dangerous ways.