From Time Magazine:
Having failed to stop North Korea testing a bomb, Beijing now has to make the diplomatic process produce results
China has the most difficult task of all the participants in the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program that begin Monday in Beijing. As the chief patron of the North Korean regime ” China supplies up to half the country’s food requirement and even more of its daily oil needs ” Beijing has long been seen as the only party with any real influence over the actions of the erratic Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il. But Kim gave his backers in Beijing a rude surprise on October 9, when North Korea announced that it had tested a nuclear device in defiance of China’s demand for restraint.[Full Text]
