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Every time when North Korea wants to bargain for something, it tests a bomb. Nuclear crisis is the only chip for the DPRK to survive in between the US, Russia and China.

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I was under the impression that the whole reason North Korea existed at all was because China wanted it to be there?

As I understand itg North Korea is there because China doesn't want to have to deal with what will happen when North Korea collapses.

I thought the point of North Korea was as a buffer zone so China wouldn't have to share a border with a potentially hostile country like US-friendly South Korea. That may be obsolete, but I'm pretty sure that was the reasoning of the time.

The reasoning of the time was that China was trying to help North Korea conquer South Korea completely. Remember the Korean war was during Mao Zedong's rule of China and he was fully committed to a global Communist revolution. Where others might see a buffer, he would see a staging area for further revolution.

By the the time of Deng, North Korea was well established and successive Chinese leaders have simply tried to maintain the status quo.

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