'@MiskisM' for more than a decade China doesn't need NK for anything more than supply of nearly slave labor and cheap minerals. Military necessity of such buffer state is not obvious, given how PLAN is built to dominate the region. They would not want a nuclear arsenal in a country on a brink of civil war, but invasion and regime change are going to be as costly for China as they would be for anyone else. Especially if it has any chance of going along the lines of Sino-Vietnamese war, but with nukes.
Oh, and yeah, why would North Korea want to have nukes when it's large-caliber artillery can deliver about 1 kiloton of explosives to half of Seoul (over a course of several days at least) until barrels wear out and have to be replaced? Single man-portable nuclear demolition charge has the same instantaneous yield and can be employed anywhere, in both offensive and defensive roles. Where's fun in that?
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'@MiskisM' for more than a decade China doesn't need NK for anything more than supply of nearly slave labor and cheap minerals. Military necessity of such buffer state is not obvious, given how PLAN is built to dominate the region. They would not want a nuclear arsenal in a country on a brink of civil war, but invasion and regime change are going to be as costly for China as they would be for anyone else. Especially if it has any chance of going along the lines of Sino-Vietnamese war, but with nukes.
Oh, and yeah, why would North Korea want to have nukes when it's large-caliber artillery can deliver about 1 kiloton of explosives to half of Seoul (over a course of several days at least) until barrels wear out and have to be replaced? Single man-portable nuclear demolition charge has the same instantaneous yield and can be employed anywhere, in both offensive and defensive roles. Where's fun in that?