A Korean ‘teenager’

Cooperation between South Korea and China serves to further isolate Kim Jong-un.

Given the often comically irrational (if deadly) behaviour of North Korea and its youthful leader Kim Jong-un, it can be hard to avoid seeing the country as the teenager of the Korean peninsula, surrounded by a wiser, more successful older brother in South Korea and an indulgent, occasionally stern father in China.

That analogy, inaccurate in so many ways, fits in at least one way: despite the continued bad behaviour of the North Korean regime, China has repeatedly supported it, seemingly the last friend of the Kim dynasty and the chief reason why political sanctions have not worked against the government.

But even friends run out of patience. Over the weekend, China issued a joint statement with South Korea, calling for a denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Since only the North has nuclear weapons, it’s clear who was being spoken to.

It is unlikely Pyongyang will listen. The regime in the North cares ­little for the views of others except when it conflicts with what it wants to do. And when it is told it cannot behave a certain way, it tends to lash out at those closest. Perhaps, after all, the teenage analogy is not so inaccurate.