Suika
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To sum up, you raise two point.
1.) If China really did not want to see a nuclear capable DPRK, then why hasn't China done anything about it in the past 3 decades?
2.) Would NK point the nuke on China?
For question 1.
Do bear in mind China only has been in the international political arena for the past decade, which started to make decision that impact the regional security, prior to that, it's nominally about security within Chinese own border.
The problem for China is that, North Korea is a double edged sword, on one hand, had the state of NK gone nuclear, the Chinese have to risk going to thermonuclear war on behalf of North Korea, in case they have used it on South Korea, Japan or the USA. On the other hand, they hold a trump card with North Korea, that is in the form of Kim Jong-nam, which is the key to NK political circle, because politics 101 will tell you, you cannot have a coup without a proper and groomed leadership, Jong-nam is that man. That is why he was protected by the Chinese and stayed in Macau
But now, he's dead, it basically forced Chinese hand to have another approach, up to that point, China can easily (well, not exactly easy, but doable) to have force a regime change and alter the course of North Korea, but now this is not going to be the case, if Kim's gone, there will be an "Iraq" for China to deal with, only this time, they are armed with nuclear weapon.
Kim Jong-UN knows that, that is why he ordered the purge and the assassination of his brother. And that is the ultimatum Kim Jong have with China, this is something You won't be able to imagine the North would do in the past 3 decades, and certainly will not happen had Kim Il-sung is in charge, that tell us something.
A.) Kim Jong does not trust the Chinese, am not going to say he hated them, but he have some sort of mistrust with the Chinese
B.) Kim Jong sees his land no longer being a vassal state to China.
Both of which is Alarming for China.
China does not want to see a nuclear capable North Korea, but one way or another, they could not do anything about it, nor would they have any card to play to begin with. China in early 2000 is still weak and needed North Korea as buffer. But now, things are different, the need for a nuclear power as a buffer does not outweigh the cost Chinese is playing, which is to support the North no matter what and losing the South to the American.
2.) Politics is a strange game, today's friends may be tomorrow enemies, and yesterday's enemies may be today's friends, especially so if you are in a dictator regime. If you want me to name example how easy relationship can change and do a 180, I can name a lot. From Egypt switching side from Soviet after Yom Kippur War, to Iran switching to Russia after Islamic revolution, Vietnam from China to Russia after WW2, Uganda from Israel to Libya and Soviet Union and so on.
Will we see Kim pointing nuke at China? Maybe, or maybe not, but is it possible? Yes, couple with the fact that Kim is not rational or at least does not appear rational. We cannot say for sure, but I will know just this, it would be naïve to think North Korea will still be under Chinese leash if and when they have a full Nuclear Weapon arsenal. Once they have achieve that, North Korea will be more assertive, and China will be more submissive. Unless you honestly think Chinese leadership will still put 100% faith on North Korean leader, because if the Chinese do, there are no way they would provide safe haven to Kim's Brother.
To your first rebuttal, I would have to disagree. China has demonstrated its will to use force against Vietnam, both in a land war in the late 1970s, and another fight at sea for the Paracel islands in the late 1980s. China and India had a border war as well. Diplomatically speaking, China did become a big enough of a force in which the US switched official international recognition from ROC to PRC in the 1970s with Nixon's visit to China, thus earning the PRC a permanent seat on the UNSC. Additionally, to a DPRK in the 1990s, and first decade of the 2000s, DPRK was fully dependent on Chinese imports. It wouldn't have been so difficult for them to apply incremental sanctions on the DPRK. But no, there was nothing from China.
To the second point, yes the dynamic of changing off friendships is true, but what is the evidence of that in the past 3 decades between PRC and DPRK? None, until finally this year, of a few bits of friction. But friction can certainly exist between aligned nations still. Maybe it will happen, and DPRK miraculously becomes dis-aligned with China, and thus would not be in China's interest, but if it does happen, it would be despite apparent Chinese approval of the DPRK in the last 3 decades. But it is probably too early say that this has become the case because all comments by Xi and other PRC representatives like foreign minister Wang regarding DPRK and the US threat to use military force has been a demand for deescalation of tensions and an urging of the US to not do anything rashful, in other words, China was calling on the US to not use force. So now we see China dragging their feet in cooperating in applying real pressure on DPRK. So of course DPRK does not like that and squeals at China for the first time.
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