Quote:
South Korea would be thrilled if they could just merge / take over North Korea in the same fashion as Germany reunified.
Uh, you sure about that? The economic and social impact of such a unification would be devastating. While I'm sure South Korea isn't thrilled about having a nuclear power to their north run by a batshit insane dictator, I haven't ever read anything that suggests they'd want a unified Korea, and all of the problems that would come from it.
China is indeed in the driver's seat, but their interest is in prolonging the situation, not defusing it. North Korea provides good leverage for China against the United States, and as long as China is seen as kinda-sorta trying to help us, they can enjoy the benefits of playing both sides. China will do NOTHING about this until they themselves feel threatened, which they obviously do not. And, while the US still has a fair amount of economic leverage, that advantage is eroding very quickly as well.
This is yet another miserable foreign policy failure from GWB, and no amount of "toughness" is going to fix it. Multilateral talks don't help either, because China isn't in our corner, and South Korea, Japan, and Russia have no power. Bilateral diplomacy, in the form of direct talks and negotiation with DPRK, would seem to be the best way to slow down the escalating tensions, but it's something that this administration will not do.
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