The relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang has been obvious since President Trump took office in 2017 and began a series of sunlight diplomacy drops.  What President Trump exposed was the level of control China holds over North Korea.  Essentially, Kim Jong-Un is a hostage to Chairman Xi Jinping with little control over the military aspects of the DPRK.

When this baseline forms the forward analysis, the paradigm of historic western engagement with North Korea takes on an entire new dimension.

If China controls North Korea, specifically the functional leadership within the military, then all military action is essentially not from North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, but rather controlled and positioned by Chairman Xi.

As a downstream consequence the issue of North Korean nuclear weapons is essentially moot.  Of course the DPRK has nuclear weapon capability, those weapons would come from China and be controlled by Beijing.

Accept the DPRK as a proxy province to China and the issues look completely different.  We can debate the level of Beijing’s control, but it is certainly evident the military -which is essentially the important part of the DPRK government- receives instructions from China, not from Kim.  Chairman Kim Jong-un is essentially riding a dragon he does not control.  That was the subtle diplomacy visible inside the relationship as expressed between President Trump and Chairman Kim.

Fast forward through the time when Trump-Kim have a common understanding based on the reality of the situation… and then inject a JoeBama administration going back to the nonsense where they return to an international message that North Korea is an independent nation, without China controlling it.  How is Kim Jong-un expected to react to a new U.S. outlook that doesn’t reflect the reality?   He can’t.

The First Vice Foreign Minister of North Korea provides a statement that walks carefully between dynamic of North Korea as a hostage to China, and the U.S. reaching out to the DPRK without accepting the reality.  Reset your paradigm to the position of Kim as a hostage, then read the statement from North Korea and everything makes sense.

(North Korea) – Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) — Choe Son Hui, first vice minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), issued the following statement on Wednesday:

The U.S. has tried to contact us since mid-February through several routes including New York.  It recently requested to contact us by sending e-mails and telephone messages via various routes. Even in the evening before the joint military drill it sent a message imploring us to respond to its request through a third country.

But we don’t think there is need to respond to the U.S. delaying-time trick again.

We have already declared our stand that no DPRK-U.S. contact and dialogue of any kind can be possible unless the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK. Therefore, we will disregard such an attempt of the U.S. in the future, too.

In order for a dialogue to be made, an atmosphere for both parties to exchange words on an equal basis must be created.

But what has been heard from the U.S. since the emergence of the new regime is only lunatic theory of “threat from north Korea” and groundless rhetoric about “complete denuclearization”.

The White House, the Department of State, the Department of Treasury, the Department of Justice, etc. reeled off a spate of rhetoric that the U.S. still has great concern for deterring north Korea and it is now examining what kind of means are to be used which include additional sanctions and diplomatic incentives. They have maintained high-handed posture, convening an international conference against us, making public “joint alert” and bringing an indictment against us.

The U.S. military keeps stealthily putting military threat to us and is committing spying acts against us with the involvement of lots of reconnaissance assets. It also openly started aggression-minded joint military exercises targeting us, defying concern and opposition by the public at home and abroad.

It seems the U.S. has not yet dropped the habit of doggedly faulting the DPRK.  (read more)

No Interpreters – They talked without filters… perhaps, for Kim, the first honest conversation in decades.

Without a doubt Chinese think-tanks must be wondering if JoeBama really doesn’t know what President Trump knew and strategized.  How can a change in administrations make such a radical shift to return to a foreign policy based on a big international lie; alas they have.

Chairman Xi Jinping is likely laughing at the Biden administration… (which seems visible based on the Alaska summit)… because it is too easy to play this Panda mask game with an adversary who is ideologically predisposed to ignoring the truth.   Quite a remarkable position, and nothing within it will be good for the U.S.