Unlike Germany, North Korea is a tiny economic and military power compared with the surrounding countries; China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, USA [which is not technically a surrounding country]. So they don't really need to be attacked before they go postal and invade all of the surrounding countries as Japan did and Germany did.
I wish that were true, but it is not. Any country, no matter how conventionally weak, who has missiles and nukes and threatens two substantial allies and will, in time, threaten the US with nukes via ICBMs, cannot be considered weak and ineffective, especially with lunatic tyrants at the helm. Nuclear weapons increase military power exponentially - it doesn't matter who owns them or how weak they might otherwise be.
The NK leadership has to go because there is nothing China can do to preclude them from further developing ICBMs. While China may well act in good faith and do its best to prevent chaos, the NK leadership would rather starve its people than stop its nuclear programs. At the end of the day, China is unable to control NK. Plus, China knows that NK is a US-Japanese-S. Korean problem, not truly theirs. Finally, China's motivation is tinged with many competing interests because, in its view, anything that weakens S Korea, Japan and the US is not altogether a bad thing. |
