Conventional wisdom is that China prefers to maintain the status quo in North Korea as a buffer against American power. Xi Jinping hasn't really signaled yet whether he will change direction on that. Yesterday the White House specifically referred to America's "nuclear umbrella" over South Korea, which is unusually explicit wording, so hopefully they are raising the pressure on China to do more to intervene. I don't think the DPRK could persist if China withdrew its support. I try to imagine a scenario for the incoming administrations in China and South Korea, working in cooperation with the U.S., to convince the DPRK to peacefully transition to a normalized and open country.
> I don't think the DPRK could persist if China withdrew its support.
I believe this is correct. I've read reports that China provides the North with about half (or more) of its food. I'd imagine a substantial portion of that goes to feed NK's military.
The only solution will very likely involve China, and I can't imagine that they'll go willingly. They may change their mind if NK lobs an atomic weapon at the South or at US interests (continental if they can reach; elsewhere if not), but I'm dubious even that might work.
Assuming the North's military leadership doesn't completely lose its few remaining marbles, they might believe that nuclear proliferation within (in the form of many functional, working weapons) gains them sufficient bargaining power that they can do whatever they want. In that circumstance, it's plausible that they might wind up stepping on China's toes. Although, I highly doubt this would happen either.
It's depressing because there's very little that we can do, and China is unlikely to help for reasons bfe cited. They've literally starved out the population that could potentially overthrow the regime from within, so save convincing some segment of their army to stage a coup, all we can do is wait.
It also doesn't hurt to spread stories like this one far and wide. The only problem is that the majority of people outside the Koreas (particularly those within the US) just don't care. It doesn't affect them, so why bother?
