North Korea is China's proxy.
When we hear threats from NKorea, we're really hearing them from Beijing.
North Korea is entirely economically dependent on China.
North Korea has only not been invaded because of China.
North Korea's intelligence comes from China.
North Korea's dictactors are protected from the people they're oppressing by China.
On every level possible, China is completely in control over North Korea.
So let's stop pretending we're talking about an autonomous country; we're talking about China.
Agreed. When the Soviet Union existed, everyone talked about how Poland, East Germany, Czechoslavakia, etc. were its buffer states. They were kept dependent on the USSR and served as its first line of defense. That's the same thing in North Korea. It's impossible to believe that China (or really, its dictators who only want to keep themselves in their privileged positions) could care so much about controlling its people and keeping a claim on Taiwan, but are hands off Korea.