U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry went to Beijing to again lecture his hosts about the need for China to pressure North Korea over the latter's nuclear program. As expected, Kerry's mission failed. The Xi government again proved unwilling to threaten the survival of the Kim dynasty.
Immediately after Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test Kerry attacked Beijing's policy: it "has not worked and we cannot continue business as usual." While visiting China he went into rhetorical overdrive. The North — a small, impoverished nation far distant from the United States — "poses an overt threat, a declared threat, to the world."
Even before Kerry arrived, China made clear it disagreed. "The origin and crux of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula has never been China," said a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman: "The key to solving the problem is not China."