Re:Japan Government warned citizens to shelter after ballist...
by GalenErso on Wednesday April 12, 2023 @08:32PM
(#35549192)
> I guess there is still the concern that China would back NK, but I can't see what China benefits from that. A war with other superpowers to protect a poor, weak, unpredictable regime?
North Korea has been very useful to China. You could make either case: that China would come to NK's rescue [1], or that it would hasten its demise [2].
There is also the possibility that North Korea would nuke Beijing if it was on the brink of defeat and China didn't come to its aid. The distance between North Korea and Beijing is only a few hundred kilometers, after all, and though North Korea may not have China's sophisticated arsenal of missiles, it has enough functional short range and medium range ballistic missiles to wipe Beijing off the map. A kind of reverse NATO, if you will. China might be condemned to back North Korea, even if it doesn't want to, under threat of nuclear annihilation.
North Korea has been very useful to China. You could make either case: that China would come to NK's rescue [1], or that it would hasten its demise [2].
There is also the possibility that North Korea would nuke Beijing if it was on the brink of defeat and China didn't come to its aid. The distance between North Korea and Beijing is only a few hundred kilometers, after all, and though North Korea may not have China's sophisticated arsenal of missiles, it has enough functional short range and medium range ballistic missiles to wipe Beijing off the map. A kind of reverse NATO, if you will. China might be condemned to back North Korea, even if it doesn't want to, under threat of nuclear annihilation.
[1] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/north-korea/2022-02-...
[2] https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2017-12-12/why-...