Is the bromance between China’s Xi and North Korea’s Jung-un on the rocks? Somebody’s not returning their texts – PB/TK
China’s Red Line on North Korea April 13 2017
As we head into the long Easter weekend, the US Carl Vinson navy strike group is moving toward the Korean peninsula. All eyes are focused on the calendar: May 15 when North Korea is widely expected to conduct the sixth nuclear test on the 102nd anniversary of the birth of North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il-Sung, the grandfather of the current head Kim Jong-un. Tension in the Korean peninsula has reached a feverish pitch, not seen in years if not since the end of the Korean War in 1952. Questions on the minds of most are:
1) Will Kim Jong-un defy the intense international pressure and go ahead with the sixth nuclear test?
2) Will America strike at North Korea if it conducts the test?
3) What kind of strike will it be: surgical strike at DPRK’s nuclear facilities, decapitation strike to take out Kim Jong-un, betting that a new leader that emerges will abandon nuclear tests, or a large-scale attack?
4) Will China intervene and under what circumstances?
Tension continues to escalate after the Trump-Xi summit, during which Trump ordered a missile strike at a Syrian airbase at Homs. Such show of force no doubt was partly done to send Xi a strong message that America will take action against North Korea if it insists on proceeding with its sixth nuclear test.
Continue to counterpunch.org article: http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/13/chinas-red-line-on-north-korea/
