Concerned about the implications of a North Korean collapse, China shows little appetite for confrontation. This reserve illustrates how the one country with power to stop North Korea’s nuclear ambitions is paralyzed by its tiny, upstart neighbor, which has no other allies. The bigger neighbor accounts for 90% of North Korea’s trade, much of it along the Yalu River, which serves as a border between the two countries. “For China, North Korea is a necessary evil,” said Zhang Baohui, the director of the Center for Asian Pacific Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. “China has accepted the reality of a nuclear North Korea.”Meyers is a special correspondent.

Source: Los Angeles Times September 12, 2016 09:00 UTC